I 

I 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


PARROT  &  CO. 


PARROT  &  CO 


By 
HAROLD  MACGRATH 


ILLUSTRATIONS   IN  COLOR  BY 

ANDRE  CASTAIGNE 

AND 

BLACK  AND  WHITE  BY 

ARTHUR  WILLIAM  BROWN 


INDIANAPOLIS 

THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT  1913 
THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 


PRESS    OF 

BRAUNWORTH   &    CO. 

BOOKBINDERS    AND    PRINTERS 

BROOKLYN,    N.   Y. 


CONTENTS 

Cbaptci 

I  EAST  Is  EAST V.I.  1 

II  A  MAN  WITH  A  PAST 16 

III  THE  WEAK  LINK 35 

IV  Two  DAYS  OF  PARADISE 52 

V  BACK  TO  LIFE 66 

VI  IN  THE  NEXT  ROOM 81 

VII  CONFIDENCES 97 

VIII  A  WOMAN'S  REASON 106 

IX  Two  SHORT  WEEKS 121 

X  THE  CUT  DIRECT 136 

XI  THE  BLUI  FEATHER 153 

XII  THE  GAME  OF  GOSSIP 169 

XIII  AFTER  TEN  YEARS 185 

XIV  ACCORDING  TO  THE  RULES 200 

XV  A  BIT  OF  A  LARK .  215 

XVI  WHO  Is  PAUL  ELLISON? 229 

XVII  THE  ANSWERING  CABLE    ........  243 

XVIII  THE  BATTLE 253 

XIX  Two  LETTERS 267 

XX  THE  Two  BROTHERS >     .     .  280 

XXI  HE  THAT  WAS  DEAD  .  294 


TO 

J.  J.  CURTIS 


PARROT  &  CO. 


PARROT  &  CO. 


EAST   IS   EAST 

IT  began  somewhere  in  the  middle  of  the  world, 
between  London  which  is  the  beginning  and 
New  York  which  is  the  end,  where  all  things  are 
east  of  the  one  and  west  of  the  other.  To  be 
precise,  a  forlorn  landing  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
muddy  turbulent  Irrawaddy,  remembered  by  man 
only  so  often  as  it  was  necessary  for  the  flotilla 
boat  to  call  for  paddy,  a  visiting  commissioner  anx 
ious  to  get  away,  or  a  family  homeward-bound. 
Somewhere  in  the  northeast  was  Mandalay,  but 
lately  known  in  romance,  verse  and  song ;  somewhere 
in  the  southeast  lay  Prome,  known  only  in  guide 
books  and  time-tables ;  and  farther  south,  Rangoon, 
sister  to  Singapore,  the  half-way  house  of  the  dere 
licts  of  the  world.  On  the  east  side  of  the  river, 


PARROT  &  CO. 

over  there,  was  a  semblance  of  civilization.  That 
is  to  say,  men  wore  white  linen,  avoided  murder, 
and  frequently  paid  their  gambling  debts.  But  on 
this  west  side  stood  wilderness,  not  the  kind  one 
reads  about  as  being  eventually  conquered  by  white 
men ;  no,  the  real  grim  desolation,  where  the  ax  cuts 
but  leaves  no  blaze,  where  the  pioneer  disappears 
and  few  or  none  follow.  The  pioneer  has  always 
been  a  successful  pugilist,  but  in  this  part  of  Burma 
fate,  out  of  pure  admiration  for  the  pygmy's  game- 
ness,  decided  to  call  the  battle  a  draw.  It  was  not 
the  wilderness  of  the  desert,  of  the  jungle;  rather 
the  tragic  hopeless  state  of  a  settlement  that 
neither  progressed,  retarded,  nor  stood  still. 

Between  the  landing  and  the  settlement  itself 
there  stretched  a  winding  road,  arid  and  treeless,  per 
haps  two  miles  in  length.  It  announced  definitely 
that  its  end  was  futility.  All  this  day  long  heavy 
bullock-carts  had  rumbled  over  it,  rumbled  toward 
the  landing  and  rattled  emptily  back  to  the  settle 
ment.  The  dust  hung  like  a  fog  above  the  road, 
not  only  for  this  day,  but  for  all  days  between  the 
big  rains.  Each  night,  however,  the  cold  heavy 
dews  drew  it  down,  cooling  but  never  congealing 

2 


EAST  IS  EAST 

it.  From  under  the  first  footfall  the  next  day  it 
rose  again.  When  the  gods,  or  the  elements,  or 
Providence,  arranged  the  world  as  a  fit  habitation 
for  man,  India  and  Burma  were  made  the  dust 
bins.  And  as  water  finds  its  levels,  so  will  dust, 
earthly  and  human,  the  quick  and  the  dead. 

It  was  after  five  in  the  afternoon.  The  sun  was 
sinking,  hazily  but  swiftly;  ribbons  of  scarlet,  rib 
bons  of  rose,  ribbons  of  violet,  lay  one  upon  the 
other.  The  sun  possessed  no  definite  circle ;  a  great 
blinding  radiance  like  metal  pouring  from  the 
mouth  of  a  blast-furnace.  Along  the  road  walked 
two  men,  phantom-like.  One  saw  their  heads 
dimly  and  still  more  dimly  their  bodies  to  the  knees ; 
of  legs,  there  was  nothing  visible.  Occasionally 
they  stepped  aside  to  permit  some  bullock-cart  to 
pass.  One  of  them  swore,  not  with  any  evidence 
of  temper,  not  viciously,  but  in  a  kind  of  mechan 
ical  protest,  which,  from  long  usage,  had  become  a 
habit.  He  directed  these  epithets  never  at  animate 
things,  never  at  anything  he  could  by  mental  or 
physical  contest  overcome.  He  swore  at  the  dust, 
at  the  heat,  at  the  wind,  at  the  sun. 

The  other  wayfarer,  with  the  inherent  patience 


PARROT  &  CO. 

of  his  blood,  said  nothing  and  waited,  setting  down 
the  heavy  kit-bag  and  the  canvas- valise  (his  own)'. 
When  the  way  was  free  again  he  would  sling  the 
kit-bag  and  the  valise  over  his  shoulder  and  step 
back  into  the  road.  His  turban,  once  white,  was 
brown  with  dust  and  sweat.  His  khaki  uniform 
was  rent  under  the  arm-pits,  several  buttons  were 
gone;  his  stockings  were  rusty  black,  mottled  with 
patches  of  brown  skin ;  and  the  ragged  canvas-shoes 
spurted  little  spirals  of  dust  as  he  walked.  The 
British-Indian  government  had  indulgently  permit 
ted  him  to  proceed  about  his  duties  as  guide  and 
carrier  under  the  cognomen  of  James  Hooghly,  in 
honor  of  a  father  whose  surname  need  not  be  writ 
ten  here,  and  in  further  honor  of  the  river  upon 
which,  quite  inconveniently  one  early  morning,  he 
had  been  born.  For  he  was  Eurasian;  half  Euro 
pean,  half  Indian,  having  his  place  twixt  heaven  and 
hell,  which  is  to  say,  nowhere.  His  father  had  died 
of  a  complication  of  bhang-drinking  and  opium-eat 
ing;  and  as  a  consequence,  Janies  was  full  of  humor 
less  imagination,  spells  of  moodiness  and  outbursts 
of  hilarious  politics.  Every  native  who  acquires  a 
facility  in  English  immediately  sets  out  to  rescue 

4 


EAST  IS  EAST 

India  from  the  clutches  of  the  British  raj,  occa 
sionally  advancing  so  far  as  to  send  a  bullet  into 
some  harmless  individual  in  the  Civil  Service. 

James  was  faithful,  willing  and  strong;  and  as 
a  carrier  of  burdens,  took  unmurmuringly  his  place 
beside  the  tireless  bullock  and  the  elephant.  He 
was  a  Methodist;  why,  no  one  could  find  lucid  an 
swer,  since  he  ate  no  beef,  drank  from  no  common 
* 

cup,  smoked  through  his  fist  when  he  enjoyed  a 
pipe,  and  never  assisted  Warrington  Sahib  in  his 
deadly  pursuit  of  flies  and  mosquitoes.  He  was 
Hindu  in  all  his  acts  save  in  his  manner  of  entering 
temples ;  in  this,  the  European  blood  kept  his  knees 
unbended.  By  dint  of  inquiry  his  master  had 
learned  that  James  looked  upon  his  baptism  and 
conversion  in  Methodism  as  a  corporal  would  have 
looked  upon  the  acquisition  of  a  V.  C.  Twice,  dur 
ing  fever  and  plague,  he  had  saved  his  master's  life. 
With  the  guilelessness  of  the  Oriental  he  considered 
himself  responsible  for  his  master  in  all  future 
times.  Instead  of  paying  off  a  debt  he  had  acquired 
one.  Treated  as  he  was,  kindly  but  always  firmly, 
he  would  have  surrendered  his  life  cheerfully  at  the 
beck  of  the  white  man. 

5 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Warrington  was  an  American.  He  was  also  on< 
of  those  men  who  never  held  misfortune  in  con 
tempt,  whose  outlook  wherever  it  roamed  was  tol 
erant.  He  had  patience  for  the  weak,  resolutioi 
for  the  strong,  and  a  fearless  amiability  toward  all 
He  was  like  the  St.  Bernard  dog,  very  difficult  t< 
arouse.  It  is  rather  the  way  with  all  men  who  ar< 
strong  mentally  and  physically.  He  was  tall  an< 
broad  and  deep.  Under  the  battered  pith-helme 
his  face  was  as  dark  as  the  Eurasian's ;  but  the  eye 
were  blue,  bright  and  small-pupiled,  as  they  ar 
with  men  who  live  out-of-doors,  who  are  compelle* 
of  necessity  to  note  things  moving  in  the  distances 
The  nose  was  large  and  well-defined.  All  frame* 
in  a  tangle  of  blond  beard  and  mustache  which,  i 
anything,  added  to  the  general  manliness  of  his  ap 
pearance.  He,  too,  wore  khaki,  but  with  the  addi 
tion  of  tan  riding-leggings,  which  had  seen  anything 
but  rocking-horse  service.  The  man  was  yellov 
from  the  top  of  his  helmet  to  the  soles  of  his  shoe 
—  outside.  For  the  rest,  he  was  a  mystery,  t< 
James,  to  all  who  thought  they  knew  him,  and  mos 
of  all  to  himself.  A  pariah,  an  outcast,  a  fugitiv 
from  the  bloodless  hand  of  the  law;  a  gentlemai 

6 


EAST  IS  EAST 

born,  once  upon  a  time  a  clubman,  college-bred;  a 
contradiction,  a  puzzle  for  which  there  was  not  any 
solution,  not  even  in  the  hidden  corners  of  the 
man's  heart.  His  name  wasn't  Warrington;  and 
he  had  rubbed  elbows  with  the  dregs  of  humanity, 
and  still  looked  you  straight  in  the  eye  because  he 
had  come  through  inferno  without  bringing  any  of 
the  defiling  pitch. 

From  time  to  time  he  paused  to  relight  his  crum 
bling  cheroot.  The  tobacco  was  strong  and  bitter, 
and  stung  his  parched  lips;  but  the  craving  for  the 
tang  of  the  smoke  on  his  tongue  was  not  to  be 
denied. 

Under  his  arm  he  carried  a  small  iron-cage,  pat 
terned  something  like  a  rat-trap.  It  contained  a 
Rajputana  parrakeet,  not  much  larger  than  a  robin, 
but  possessor  of  a  soul  as  fierce  as  that  of  Palladin, 
minus,  however,  the  smoothing  influence  of  chiv 
alry.  He  had  been  born  under  the  eaves  of  the 
scarlet  palace  in  Jaipur  (so  his  history  ran)  ;  but 
the  proximity  of  Indian  princes  had  left  him  un 
touched:  he  had  neither  chivalry,  politeness,  nor 
diplomacy.  He  was,  in  fact,  thoroughly  and  con 
sistently  bad.  Round  and  round  he  went,  over  and 


PARROT  &  CO. 

over,  top-side,  down-side,  restlessly.  For  at  this 
moment  he  was  hearing  those  familiar  evening 
sounds  which  no  human  ear  can  discern:  the  mut 
tering  of  the  day-birds  about  to  seek  cover  for  the 
night.  In  the  field  at  the  right  of  the  road  stood 
a  lonely  tree.  It  was  covered  with  brilliant  scarlet 
leaves  and  blossoms,  and  justly  the  natives  call  it  the 
Flame  of  the  Jungle.  A  flock  of  small  birds  were 
gyrating  above  it. 

"  Jah,  jah,  jah!  Jah — jah — ja-a-a-h!"  cried  the 
parrot,  imitating  the  Burmese  bell-gong  that  calls 
to  prayer.  Instantly  he  followed  the  call  with  a 
shriek  so  piercing  as  to  sting  the  ear  of  the  man  who 
was  carrying  him. 

"You  little  son-of-a-gun,"  he  laughed;  "where 
do  you  pack  away  all  that  noise  ?  " 

There  was  a  strange  bond  between  the  big  yellow 
man  and  this  little  green  bird^  The  bird  did  not 
suspect  it,  but  the  man  knew.  The  pluck,  the  pug 
nacity  and  the  individuality  of  the  feathered  com 
rade  had  been  an  object  lesson  to  the  man,  at  a  time 
when  he  had  been  on  the  point  of  throwing  up  the 
%ht. 

"Jah,     jah,     jah!     Jah— jah— ja-a-a-h !"     The 


He  carried  a  cage. 


EAST  IS  EAST 

bird  began  its  interminable  somersaults,  pausing 
only  to  reach  for  the  tantalizing  finger  of  the  man, 
•who  laughed  again  as  he  withdrew  the  digit  in  time. 

For  six  years  he  had  carried  the  bird  with  him, 
through  India  and  Burma  and  Malacca,  and  not  yet 
had  he  won  a  sign  of  surrender.  There  were  many 
scars  on  his  forefingers.  It  was  amazing.  With 
one  pressure  of  his  hand  he  could  have  crushed  out 
the  life  of  the  bird,  but  over  its  brave  unconquer 
able  spirit  he  had  no  power.  And  that  is  why  he 
loved  it. 

Far  away  in  the  past  they  had  met.  He  remem 
bered  the  day  distinctly  and  bitterly.  He  had  been 
on  the  brink  of  self-destruction.  Fever  and  pov 
erty  and  terrible  loneliness  had  battered  and  beaten 
him  flat  into  the  dust  from  which  this  time  he  had 
had  no  wish  to  rise.  He  had  walked  out  to  the  rail 
way  station  at  Jaipur  to  witness  the  arrival  of  the 
tourist  train  from  Ahmadabad.  He  wanted  to  see 
white  men  and  white  women  from  his  own  country, 
though  up  to  this  day  he  had  carefully  avoided  them. 
(How  he  hated  the  English,  with  their  cold-blooded 
suspicion  of  all  who  were  not  island-born!)  The 
natives  surged  about  the  train,  with  brass-ware,  an- 

9 


PARROT  &  CO. 

tique  articles  of  warfare,  tiger-hunting  knives  (ac 
companied  by  perennial  fairy  tales),  skins  and  silks. 
There  were  beggars,  holy  men,  guides  and  fakirs. 

Squatted  in  the  dust  before  the  door  of  a  first- 
class  carriage  was  a  solemn  brown  man,  in  turban 
and  clout,  exhibiting  performing  parrots.  It  was 
Rajah's  turn.  He  fired  a  cannon,  turned  somer 
saults  through  a  little  steel-hoop,  opened  a  tiny  chest, 
took  out  a  four-anna  piece,  carried  it  to  his  master, 
and  in  exchange  received  some  seed.  Thereupon 
he  waddled  resentfully  back  to  the  iron-cage,  opened 
the  door,  closed  it  behind  him,  and  began  to  mutter 
belligerently.  Warrington  haggled  for  two  straight 
hours.  When  he  returned  to  his  sordid  evil-smell 
ing  lodgings  that  night,  he  possessed  the  parrot  and 
four  rupees,  and  sat  up  the  greater  part  of  the  night 
trying  to  make  the  bird  perform  his  tricks.  The 
idea  of  suicide  no  longer  bothered  him;  trifling 
though  it  was,  he  had  found  an  interest  in  life. 
And  on  the  morrow  came  the  Eurasian,  who  trust 
fully  loaned  Warrington  every  coin  that  he  could 
scrape  together. 

Often,  in  the  dreary  heart-achy  days  that  fol 
lowed,  when  weeks  passed  ere  he  saw  the  face  of  a 

10 


EAST  IS  EAST 

white  man,  when  he  had  to  combat  opium  and  bhang 
and  laziness  in  the  natives  under  him,  the  bird  and 
his  funny  tricks  had  saved  him  from  whisky,  or 
worse.  In  camp  he  gave  Rajah  much  freedom,  its 
wings  being  dipt;  and  nothing  pleased  the  little 
rebel  so  much  as  to  claw  his  way  up  to  his  master's 
shoulder,  sit  there  and  watch  the  progress  of  the 
razor,  with  intermittent  "  jawing "  at  his  own  re 
flection  in  the  cracked  hand-mirror. 

Up  and  down  the  Irrawaddy,  at  the  rest-houses, 
on  the  boats,  to  those  of  a  jocular  turn  of  mind  the 
three  were  known  as  "  Parrot  &  Co."  Warring- 
ton's  amiability  often  misled  the  various  scoundrels 
with  whom  he  was  at  times  forced  to  associate.  A 
man  who  smiled  most  of  the  time  and  talked  Hindu 
stani  to  a  parrot  was  not  to  be  accorded  much 
courtesy;  until  one  day  Warrington  had  settled  all 
distinctions,  finally  and  primordially,  with  the  square 
of  his  fists.  After  that  he  went  his  way  unmolested, 
having  soundly  trounced  one  of  the  biggest  bullies  in 
the  teak  timber-yards  at  Rangoon. 

He  made  no  friends ;  he  had  no  confidences  to  ex 
change  ;  nor  did  he  offer  to  become  the  repository  of 
other  men's  pasts.  But  he  would  share  his  bread 

ii 


PARROT  &  CO. 

and  his  rupees,  when  he  had  them,  with  any  who 
asked.  Many  tried  to  dig  into  his  past,  but  he  was 
as  unresponsive  as  granite.  It  takes  a  woman  to 
find  out  what  a  man  is  and  has  been ;  and  Warring- 
ton  went  about  women  in  a  wide  circle.  In  a  way 
he  was  the  most  baffling  kind  of  a  mystery  to  those 
who  knew  him:  he  frequented  the  haunts  of  men, 
took  a  friendly  drink,  played  cards  for  small  sums, 
laughed  and  jested  like  any  other  anchorless  man. 
In  the  East  men  are  given  curious  names.  They  be 
come  known  by  phrases,  such  as,  The  Man  Who 
Talks,  Mr.  Once  Upon  a  Time,  The  One-Rupee 
Man,  and  the  like.  As  Warrington  never  received 
any  mail,  as  he  never  entered  a  hotel,  nor  spoke  of 
the  past,  he  became  The  Man  Who  Never  Talked  of 
Home. 

"  I  say,  James,  old  sport,  no  more  going  up  and 
down  this  bally  old  river.  We'll  go  on  to  Rangoon 
to-night,  if  we  can  find  a  berth." 

'  Yes,  Sahib ;  this  business  very  piffle,"  replied 
the  Eurasian  without  turning  his  head.  Two  things 
he  dearly  loved  to  acquire :  a  bit  of  American  slang 
and  a  bit  of  English  silver.  He  was  invariably 
changing  his  rupees  into  shillings,  and  Warrington 

12 


EAST  IS  EAST 

could  not  convince  him  that  he  was  always  losing  in 
the  transactions. 

They  tramped  on  through  the  dust.  The  sun 
dropped.  A  sudden  chill  began  to  penetrate  the 
haze.  The  white  man  puffed  his  cheroot,  its  wrap 
per  dangling ;  the  servant  hummed  an  Urdu  lullaby ; 
the  parrot  complained  unceasingly. 

"  How  much  money  have  you  got,  James  ?  " 

"  Three  annas." 

Warrington  laughed  and  shook  the  dust  from  his 
beard.  "  It's  a  great  world,  James,  a  great  and  won 
derful  world.  I've  just  two  rupees  myself.  In 
other  words,  we  are  busted." 

"  Two  rupees ! "  James  paused  and  turned. 
"  Why,  Sahib,  you  have  three  hundred  thousand 
rupees  in  your  pocket." 

"  But  not  worth  an  anna  until  I  get  to  Rangoon. 
Didn't  those  duffers  give  you  anything  for  handling 
their  luggage  the  other  day  ?  " 

"  Not  a  pice,  Sahib." 

"  Rotters !  It  takes  an  Englishman  to  turn  a 
small  trick  like  that.  Well,  well ;  there  were  exten 
uating  circumstances.  They  had  sore  heads.  No 
man  likes  to  pay  three  hundred  thousand  for  some- 

13 


PARROT  &  CO. 

thing  he  could  have  bought  for  ten  thousand.  And 
I  made  them  come  to  me,  James,  to  me.  I  made 
them  come  to  this  god-forsaken  hole,  just  because  it 
pleased  my  fancy.  When  you  have  the  skewer  in, 
always  be  sure  to  turn  it  around.  I  believe  I'm 
heaven-born  after  all.  The  Lord  hates  a  quitter, 
and  so  do  I.  I  nearly  quit  myself,  once ;  eh,  Rajah, 
old  top  ?  But  I  made  them  come  to  me.  That's  the 
milk  in  the  cocoanut,  the  curry  on  the  rice.  They 
almost  had  me.  Two  rupees!  It  truly  is  a  great 
world." 

"Jah,  jah,  jah!  Jah — jah — jah — ja-a-a-h!" 
screamed  the  parrot.  "  Chaloo! " 

"  Go  on !  That's  the  ticket.  If  I  were  a  praying 
man,  this  would  be  the  time  for  it.  Three  hundred 
thousand  rupees ! "  The  man  looked  at  the  far 
horizon,  as  if  he  would  force  his  gaze  beyond,  into 
the  delectable  land,  the  Eden  out  of  which  he  had 
been  driven.  "  Caviar  and  truffles,  and  Romance 
Conti,  and  Partagas !  " 

"  Chicken  and  curry  and  Scotch  whisky." 

"  Bah !     You've  the  imagination  of  a  he-goat." 

"All  right,  Sahib." 

"  James,  I  owe  you  three  hundred  rupees,  and  I 
14 


EAST  IS  EAST 

am  going  to  add  seven  hundred  more.  We've  been 
fighting  this  old  top  for  six  years  together,  and 
you've  been  a  good  servant  and  a  good  friend ;  and 
I'll  take  you  with  me  as  far  as  this  fortune  will  go, 
if  you  say  the  word." 

"  Ah,  Sahib,  I  am  much  sorry.  But  Delhi  calls, 
and  I  go.  A  thousand  rupees  will  make  much  busi 
ness  for  me  in  the  Chandney  Chowk." 

"  Just  as  you  say." 

Presently  they  became  purple  shades  in  a  brown 
world. 


II 

A   MAN    WITH   A   PAST 

THE  moonless  Oriental  night,  spangled  with 
large  and  brilliant  stars,  brilliant  yet  mellow, 
unlike  the  crisp  scintillating  presentment  in  north 
ern  latitudes,  might  have  served  as  an  illustration  of 
an  air-tight  bowl,  flung  down  relentlessly  upon  this 
part  of  the  world.  Inside  this  figurative  bowl  it 
was  chill,  yet  the  air  was  stirless.  It  was  without 
refreshment;  it  became  a  labor  and  not  an  exhilara 
tion  to  breath  it.  A  pall  of  suffocating  dust  rolled 
above  and  about  the  Irrawaddy  flotilla  boat  which, 
buffeted  by  the  strong  irregular  current,  strained  at 
its  cables,  now  at  the  bow,  now  at  the  stern,  not  dis 
similar  to  the  last  rocking  of  a  deserted  swing.  This 
sensation  was  quite  perceptible  to  the  girl  who  leaned 
over  the  bow-rail,  her  handkerchief  pressed  to  her 
nose,  and  gazed  interestedly  at  the  steep  bank,  up  and 
down  which  the  sweating  coolies  swarmed  like  Gar 
gantuan  rats.  They  clawed  and  scrambled  up  and 

16 


A  MAN  WITH  A  PAST 

slid  and  shuffled  down;  and  always  the  bank 
threatened  to  slip  and  carry  them  all  into  the  swirl 
ing  murk  below.  A  dozen  torches  were  stuck  into 
the  ground  above  the  crumbling  ledge;  she  saw  the 
flames  as  one  sees  a  burning  match  cupped  in  a 
smoker's  hands,  shedding  light  upon  nothing  save 
that  which  stands  immediately  behind  it. 

She  choked  a  little.  Her  eyes  smarted.  Her  lips 
were  slightly  cracked,  and  cold-cream  seemed  only 
to  provide  a  surer  resting  place  for  the  impalpable 
dust.  It  had  penetrated  her  clothes;  it  had  perco 
lated  through  wool  and  linen  and  silk,  intimately,  un 
til  three  baths  a  day  had  become  a  welcome  routine, 
providing  it  was  possible  to  obtain  water.  Water. 
Her  tongue  ran  across  her  lips.  Oh,  for  a  drink 
from  the  old  cold  pure  spring  at  home !  Tea,  cof 
fee,  and  bottled  soda ;  nothing  that  ever  touched  the 
thirsty  spots  in  her  throat. 

She  looked  up  at  the  stars  and  they  looked  down 
upon  her,  but  what  she  asked  they  could  not,  would 
not,  answer.  Night  after  night  she  had  asked,  and 
night  after  night  they  had  only  twinkled  as  of  old. 
She  had  traveled  now  for  four  months,  and  still 
the  doubt  beset  her.  It  was  to  be  a  leap  in  the 

17 


PARROT  &  CO. 

dark,  with  no  one  to  tell  her  what  was  on  the  other 
side.  But  why  this  insistent  doubt?  Why  could 
she  not  take  the  leap  gladly,  as  a  woman  should 
who  had  given  the  affirmative  to  a  man?  With 
him  she  was  certain  that  she  loved  him,  away  from 

him  she  did  not  know  what  sentiment  really  abided 

i 

in  her  heart.  She  was  wise  enough  to  realize  that 
something  was  wrong;  and  there  were  but  three 
months  between  her  and  the  inevitable  decision. 
Never  before  had  she  known  other  than  momentary 
indecision;  and  it  irked  her  to  find  that  her  clarity 
of  vision  was  fallible  and  human  like  the  rest  of  her. 
The  truth  was,  she  didn't  know  her  mind.  She 
shrugged,  and  the  movement  stirred  the  dust  that 
had  gathered  upon  her  shoulders. 

What  a  dust-ridden,  poverty-ridden,  plague-rid 
den  world  she  had  seen!  Ignorance  wedded  to 
superstition,  yet  waited  upon  by  mystery  and  ro 
mance  and  incomparable  beauty.  As  the  Occi 
dental  thought  rarely  finds  analysis  in  the  Oriental 
mind,  so  her  mind  could  not  gather  and  understand 
this  amalgamation  of  art  and  ignorance.  She  for 
got  that  another  race  of  men  had  built  those  palaces 
and  temples  and  forts  and  tombs,  and  that  they 

18 


had  vanished  as  the  Greeks  and  Romans  have  van 
ished,  leaving  only  empty  spaces  behind,  which  the 
surviving  tribes  neither  fill  nor  comprehend. 

"A  rare  old  lot  of  dust;  eh,  Miss  Chetwood?  I 
wish  we  could  travel  by  night,  but  you  can't  trust 
this  blooming  old  Irrawaddy  after  sundown. 
Charts  are  so  much  waste-paper.  You  just  have 
to  know  the  old  lady.  Bars  rise  in  a  night,  shift 
this  side  and  that.  But  the  days  are  all  right.  No 
dust  when  you  get  in  mid-stream.  What?  " 

"  I  never  cease  wondering  how  those  poor  coolies 
can  carry  those  heavy  rice-bags,"  she  replied  to  the 
purser. 

"  Oh,  they  are  used  to  it,"  carelessly. 

The  great  gray  stack  of  paddy-bags  seemed,  in 
the  eyes  of  the  girl,  fairly  to  melt  away. 

"  By  Jove !  "  exclaimed  the  purser.  "  There's 
Parrot  &  Co. ! "  He  laughed  and  pointed  toward 
one  of  the  torches. 

"  Parrot  &  Co.  ?     I  do  not  understand." 

"  That  big  blond  chap  behind  the  fourth  torch. 
Yes,  there.  Sometime  I'll  tell  you  about  him.  Pic 
turesque  duffer." 

19 


PARROT  &  CO. 

She  could  have  shrieked  aloud,  but  all  she  did  was 
to  draw  in  her  breath  with  a  gasp  that  went  so  deep 
it  gave  her  heart  a  twinge.  Her  ringers  tightened 
tipon  the  teak-rail.  Suddenly  she  knew,  and  was 
ashamed  of  her  weakness.  It  was  simply  a  remark 
able  likeness,  nothing  more  than  that;  it  could  not 
possibly  be  anything  more.  Still,  a  ghost  could  not 
have  startled  her  as  this  living  man  had  done. 

"Who  is  he?" 

"  A  chap  named  Warrington.  But  over  here  that 
signifies  nothing;  might  just  as  well  be  Jones  or 
Smith  or  Brown.  We  call  him  Parrot  &  Co.,  but 
the  riff-raff  have  another  name  for  him.  The  Man 
Who  Never  Talked  of  Home.  For  two  or  three 
seasons  he's  been  going  up  and  down  the  river. 
Ragged  at  times,  prosperous  at  others.  Lately  it's 
been  rags.  He's  always  carrying  that  Rajputana 
parrot.  You've  seen  the  kind  around  the  palaces 
and  forts:  saber-blade  wings,  long  tail-feathers, 
green  and  blue  and  scarlet,  and  the  ugliest  little 
rascals  going.  This  one  is  trained  to  do  tricks." 

"  But  the  man !  "  impatiently. 

He  eyed  her,  mildly  surprised.  "  Oh,  he  puzzles 
us  all  a  bit,  you  know.  Well  educated;  somewhere 

20 


A  MAN  WITH  A  PAST 

back  a  gentleman;  from  the  States.  Of  course  I 
don't  know;  something  shady,  probably.  They 
don't  tramp  about  like  this  otherwise.  For  all  that, 
he's  rather  a  decent  sort;  no  bounder  like  that  rot 
ter  we  left  at  Mandalay.  He  never  talks  about  him 
self.  I  fancy  he's  lonesome  again." 

"Lonesome?" 

"It's  the  way,  you  know.  These  poor  beggars 
drop  aboard  for  the  night,  merely  to  see  a  white 
woman  again,  to  hear  decent  English,  to  dress  and 
dine  like  a  human  being.  They  disappear  the  next 
day,  and  often  we  never  see  them  again." 

"  What  do  they  do  ?  "  The  question  came  to  her 
lips  mechanically. 

"  Paddy-fields.  White  men  are  needed  to  over 
see  them.  And  then,  there's  the  railway,  and 
there's  the  new  oil-country  north  of  Prome.  You'll 
see  the  wells  to-morrow.  Rather  fancy  this  War- 
rington  chap  has  been  working  along  the  new  pipe 
lines.  They're  running  them  down  to  Rangoon. 
Well,  there  goes  the  last  bag.  Will  you  excuse  rne  ? 
The  lading  bills,  you  know.  If  he's  with  us  to 
morrow,  I'll  have  him  put  the  parrot  through  its 
turns.  An  amusing  little  beggar." 

21 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  Why  not  introduce  him  to  me  ?  " 

"Beg  pardon?" 

"  I'm  not  afraid,"  quietly. 

"  By  Jove,  no !  But  this  is  rather  difficult,  you 
know.  If  he  shouldn't  turn  out  right.  .  .  ."  with 
commendable  hesitance. 

"  I'll  take  all  the  responsibility.     It's  a  whim." 

"  Well,  you  American  girls  are  the  eighth  wonder 
of  the  world."  The  purser  was  distinctly  annoyed. 
"  And  it  may  be  an  impertinence  on  my  part,  but  I 
never  yet  saw  an  American  woman  who  would  ac 
cept  advice  or  act  upon  it." 

"  Thanks.  What  would  you  advise  ?  "  with  dan 
gerous  sweetness. 

"  Not  to  meet  this  man.  It's  irregular.  I  know 
nothing  about  him.  If  you  had  a  father  or  a 
brother  on  board.  ..." 

"  Or  even  a  husband !  "  laughing. 

"  There  you  are !  "  resignedly.  "  You  laugh. 
You  women  go  everywhere,  and  half  the  time  un 
protected." 

"  Never  quite  unprotected.  We  never  venttire 
beyond  the  call  of  gentlemen." 

22 


A  MAN  WITH  A  PAST 

"  That  is  true,"  brightening.  "  You  insist  on 
meeting  this  chap  ?  " 

"  I  do  not  insist ;  only,  I  am  bored,  and  he  might 
interest  me  for  an  hour."  She  added :  "  Besides, 
it  may  annoy  the  others." 

The  purser  grinned  reluctantly.  "  You  and  the 
colonel  don't  get  on.  Well,  I'll  introduce  this  chap 
at  dinner.  If  I  don't.  .  .  ." 

"  I  am  fully  capable  of  speaking  to  him  without 
any  introduction  whatever."  She  laughed  again. 
"  It  will  be  very  kind  of  you." 

When  he  had  gone  she  mused  over  this  impulse 
so  alien  to  her  character.  An  absolute  stranger,  a 
man  with  a  past,  perhaps  a  fugitive  from  justice; 
and  because  he  looked  like  Arthur  Ellison,  'she  was 
seeking  his  acquaintance.  Something,  then,  could 
break  through  her  reserve  and  aloofness?  She  had 
traveled  from  San  Francisco  to  Colombo,  unat 
tended  save  by  an  elderly  maiden  who  had  risen  by 
gradual  stages  from  nurse  to  companion,  but  who 
could  not  be  made  to  remember  that  she  was  no 
longer  a  nurse.  In  all  these  four  months  Elsa  had 
not  made  half  a  dozen  acquaintances,  and  of  these 

23 


PARROT  &  CO. 

she  had  not  sought  one.  Yet,  she  was  asking  to 
meet  a  stranger  whose  only  recommendation  was  a 
singular  likeness  to  another  man.  The  purser  was 
right.  It  was  very  irregular. 

"  Parrot  &  Co. !  "  she  murmured.  She  searched 
among  the  phantoms  moving  to  and  fro  upon  the 
ledge ;  but  the  man  with  the  cage  was  gone.  It  was 
really  uncanny. 

She  dropped  her  arms  from  the  rail  and  went  to 
her  stateroom  and  dressed  for  dinner.  She  did 
not  give  her  toilet  any  particular  care.  There  was 
no  thought  of  conquest,  no  thought  of  dazzling  the 
man  in  khaki.  It  was  the  indolence  and  careless 
ness  of  the  East,  where  clothes  become  only  neces 
sities  and  are  no  longer  the  essentials  of  adornment. 
Elsa  Chetwood  was  twenty-five,  lithely  built,  out 
wardly  reposeful,  but  dynamic  within.  Education, 
environment  and  breeding  had  somewhat  smothered 
the  glowing  fires.  She  was  a  type  of  the  ancient  re 
pression  of  woman,  which  finds  its  exceptions  in  the 
Aspasias  and  Helens  and  Cleopatras  of  legend  and 
history.  In  features  she  looked  exactly  what  she 
was,  well-bred  and  well-born.  Beauty  she  also  had, 
but  it  was  the  cold  beauty  of  northern  winter  nights. 

24 


A  MAN  WITH  A  PAST 

It  compelled  admiration  rather  than  invited  it. 
Spiritually,  Elsa  was  asleep.  The  fire  was  there, 
the  gift  of  loving  greatly,  only  it  smoldered,  without 
radiating  even  the  knowledge  of  its  presence.  Men 
loved  her,  but  in  awe,  as  one  loves  the  marbles  of 
Phidias.  She  knew  no  restraint,  and  yet  she  had 
passed  through  her  stirless  years  restrained.  She 
was  worldly  without  being  more  than  normally 
cynical ;  she  was  rich  without  being  either  frugal  or 
extravagant.  Her  independence  was  inherent  and 
not  acquired.  She  had  laid  down  certain  laws  for 
herself  to  follow;  and  that  these  often  clashed  with 
the  laws  of  convention,  which  are  fetish  to  those 
who  divide  society  into  three  classes,  only  mildly 
amused  her.  Right  from  wrong  she  knew,  and 
that  sufficed  her. 

Her  immediate  relatives  were  dead;  those  who 
were  distantly  related  remained  so,  as  they  had  no 
part  in  her  life  nor  she  in  theirs.  Relatives,  even 
the  best  of  them,  are  practically  strangers  to  us. 
They  have  their  own  affairs  and  interests,  and  if 
these  touch  ours  it  is  generally  through  the  desire 
to  inherit  what  we  have.  So  Elsa  went  her  way 
alone.  From  her  father  she  had  inherited  a  re- 

25 


PARROT  £  CO. 

markable  and  seldom  errant  judgment.  To  her, 
faces  were  generally  book-covers,  they  repelled  or 
attracted;  and  she  found  large  and  undiminishing 
interest  in  the  faculty  of  pressing  back  the  covers 
and  reading  the  text.  Often  battered  covers  held 
treasures,  and  often  the  editions  de  luxe  were  swin 
dles.  But  in  between  the  battered  covers  and  the 
exquisite  Florentine  hand-tooling  there  ranged  a 
row  of  mediocre  books;  and  it  was  among  these 
that  Elsa  found  that  her  instinct  was  not  wholly  in 
fallible,  as  will  be  seen. 

To-day  she  was  facing  the  first  problem  of  her 
young  life,  epochal.  She  was,  as  it  were,  to  stop 
and  begin  life  anew.  And  she  didn't  know,  she 
wasn't  sure. 

There  were  few  passengers  aboard.  There  were 
three  fussy  old  English  maidens  under  the  protection 
of  a  still  fussier  old  colonel,  who  disagreed  with 
everybody  because  his  liver  disagreed  with  him. 
Twenty  years  of  active  service  in  Upper  India  had 
seriously  damaged  that  physiological  function,  and 
"  pegs "  no  longer  mellowed  him.  The  quartet 
greatly  amused  Elsa.  Their  nods  were  abrupt,  and 
they  spoke  in  the  most  formal  manner.  She  was  un- 

26 


A  MAN  WITH  A  PAST 

der  grave  suspicion ;  in  the  first  place,  she  was  travel 
ing  alone,  in  the  second  place,  she  was  an  American. 
At  table  there  was  generally  a  desultory  conversa 
tion,  and  many  a  barb  of  malice  Elsa  shot  from  her 
bow.  Figuratively,  the  colonel  walked  about  like 
a  porcupine,  bristling  with  arrows  instead  of  quills. 
Elsa  could  have  shouted  at  times,  for  the  old  war- 
dog  was  perfectly  oblivious.  There  was,  besides, 
the  inevitable  German  tourist,  who  shelled  with 
questions  every  man  who  wore  brass-buttons,  until 
there  was  some  serious  talk  of  dropping  him  astern 
some  day.  He  had  shelled  the  colonel,  but  that 
gentleman  was  snugly  encased  in  the  finest  and  most 
impenetrable  Bessemer,  complacency. 

Upon  these  Irrawaddy  boats  the  purser  is  usually 
the  master  of  ceremonies  in  the  dining-saloon.  The 
captain  and  his  officers  rarely  condescended.  Per 
haps  it  was  too  much  trouble  to  dress ;  perhaps  tour 
ists  had  disgusted  them  with  life;  at  any  rate,  they 
remained  in  obscurity. 

Elsa  usually  sat  at  the  purser's  right,  and  to-night 
she  found  the  stranger  sitting  quietly  at  her  side. 
The  chair  had  been  vacant  since  the  departure  from 
Mandalay.  Evidently  the  purser  had  decided  to  be 

27 


PARROT  &  CO. 

thorough  in  regard  to  her  wishes.  It  would  look 
less  conspicuous  to  make  the  introduction  in  this 
manner.  And  she  wanted  to  meet  this  man  who 
had  almost  made  her  cry  out  in  astonishment. 

"  Miss  Chetwood,  Mr.  Warrington."  This  was 
as  far  as  the  purser  would  unbend. 

The  colonel's  eyes  popped ;  the  hands  of  the  three 
maidens  fluttered.  Warrington  bowed  awkwardly, 
for  he  was  decidedly  confused. 

"  Ha !  "  boomed  the  German.  "  Vat  do  you  tink 
uff  .  .  .  ." 

And  from  soup  to  coffee  Warrington  eluded, 
dodged,  stepped  under  and  ran  around  the  fusillade 
of  questions. 

Elsa  laughed  softly.  There  were  breathing- 
spells,  to  be  sure.  Under  the  cover  of  this  verbal 
bombardment  she  found  time  to  inspect  the  stranger. 
The  likeness,  so  close  at  hand,  started  a  ringing  in 
her  ears  and  a  flutter  in  her  throat.  It  was  almost 
unbelievable.  He  was  bigger,  broader,  his  eyes 
were  keener,  but  there  was  only  one  real  difference : 
this  man  was  rugged,  whereas  Arthur  was  elegant. 
It  was  as  if  nature  had  taken  two  forms  from  the 
same  mold,  and  had  finished  but  one  of  them.  His 

28 


A  MAN  WITH  A  PAST 

voice  was  not  unpleasant,  but  there  were  little  sharp 
points  of  harshness  in  it,  due  quite  possibly  to  the 
dust. 

"I  am  much  interested  in  that  little  parrot  of 
yours.  I  have  heard  about  him." 

"  Oh !  I  suppose  you've  heard  what  they  call 
us  ?  "  His  eyes  looked  straight  into  hers,  smilingly. 

"  Parrot  &  Co.  ?  Yes.  Will  you  show  him  off 
to-morrow  ?  " 

"  I  shall  be  very  happy  to." 

But  all  the  while  he  was  puzzling  over  the  purs 
er's  unaccountable  action  in  deliberately  introduc 
ing  him  to  this  brown-eyed,  golden-skinned  young 
woman.  Never  before  had  such  a  thing  occurred 
upon  these  boats.  True,  he  had  occasionally  been 
spoken  to ;  an  idle  question  flung  at  him,  like  a  bare 
bone  to  a  dog.  If  flung  by  an  Englishman,  he  an 
swered  it  courteously,  and  subsided.  He  had  been 
snubbed  too  many  times  not  to  have  learned  this 
lesson.  It  never  entered  his  head  that  the  introduc 
tion  might  have  been  brought  about  by  the  girl's  in 
terest.  He  was  too  mortally  shy  of  women  to  con 
ceive  of  such  a  possibility.  So  his  gratitude  was 
extended  to  the  purser,  who,  on  his  side,  regretted 

29 


PARROT  &  CO. 

his  good-natured  recommendations  of  the  previous 
hour. 

When  Elsa  learned  that  the  man  at  her  side  was 
to  proceed  to  Rangoon,  she  ceased  to  ask  him  any 
more  questions.  She  preferred  to  read  her  books 
slowly.  Once,  while  he  was  engaging  the  purser, 
her  glance  ran  over  his  clothes.  She  instantly  be 
rated  her  impulsive  criticism  as  a  bit  of  downright 
caddishness.  The  lapels  of  the  coat  were  shiny,  the 
sleeves  were  short,  there  was  a  pucker  across  the 
shoulders;  the  winged-collar  gave  evidence  of  hav 
ing  gone  to  the  native  laundry  once  too  often ;  the 
studs  in  the  shirt-bosom  were  of  the  cheapest  moth 
er-of-pearl,  and  the  cuff-buttons,  ordinary  rupee 
silver.  The  ensemble  suggested  that  since  the  pur 
chase  of  these  habiliments  of  civilization  the  man 
had  grown,  expanded. 

Immediately  after  dinner  she  retired  to  her  state 
room,  conscious  that  her  balance  needed  readjust 
ing.  She  had  heard  and  read  much  lore  concerning 
reincarnation,  skeptically;  yet  here,  within  call  of 
her  voice,  was  Arthur,  not  the  shadow  of  a  sub 
stance,  but  Arthur,  shorn  of  his  elegance,  his  soft 
lazy  voice,  his  half -dreaming  eyes,  his  charming  in- 

30 


A  MAN  WITH  A  PAST 

dolence.  Why  should  this  man's  path  cross  hers, 
out  of  all  the  millions  that  ran  parallel? 

She  opened  her  window  and  looked  up  at  the  stars 
again.  She  saw  one  fall,  describe  an  arc  and  van 
ish.  She  wondered  what  this  man  had  done  to  put 
him  beyond  the  pale;  for  few  white  men  remained 
in  Asia  from  choice.  She  had  her  ideas  of  what  a 
rascal  should  be;  but  Warrington  agreed  in  no  es 
sential.  It  was  not  possible  that  dishonor  lurked 
behind  those  frank  blue  eyes.  She  turned  from  the 
window,  impatiently,  and  stared  at  one  of  her  kit- 
bags.  Suddenly  she  knelt  down  and  threw  it  open, 
delved  among  the  soft  fabrics  and  silks  and  pro 
duced  a  photograph.  She  had  not  glanced  at  it 
during  all  these  weeks.  There  had  been  a  purpose 
back  of  this  apparent  neglect.  The  very  thing  she 
dreaded  happened.  Her  pulse  beat  on,  evenly,  un 
stirred.  She  was  a  failure. 

In  the  photograph  the  man's  beard  was  trimmed 
Valois;  the  beard  of  the  man  who  had  sat  next  to 
her  at  dinner  had  grown  freely  and  naturally,  full. 
Such  a  beard  was  out  of  fashion,  save  among  coun 
try  doctors.  It  signified  carelessness,  indifference, 
or  a  full  life  wherein  the  niceties  of  the  razor  had 


PARROT  &  CO. 

of  necessity  been  ignored.  Keenly  she  searched 
the  familiar  likeness.  What  an  amazing  freak  of 
nature !  It  was  unreal.  She  tossed  the  photograph 
back  into  the  kit-bag,  bewildered,  uneasy. 

Meantime  Warrington  followed  the  purser  into 
his  office.  "  I  haven't  paid  for  my  stateroom  yet," 
he  said. 

"  I'll  make  it  out  at  once.  Rangoon,  I  under 
stand?" 

"  Yes.  But  I'm  in  a  difficulty.  I  have  nothing 
in  change  but  two  rupees." 

The  purser  froze  visibly.  The  tale  was  trite  in 
his  ears. 

"  But  I  fancy  I've  rather  good  security  to  of 
fer,"  went  on  Warrington  coolly.  He  drew  from 
his  wallet  a  folded  slip  of  paper  and  spread  it  out. 

The  purser  stared  at  it,  enchanted.  Warrington 
stared  down  at  the  purser,  equally  enchanted. 

"  By  Jove !  "  the  former  gasped  finally.  "  And 
so  you're  the  chap  who's  been  holding  up  the  oil 
syndicate  all  these  months?  And  you're  the  chap 
who  made  them  come  to  this  bally  landing  three 
days  ago  ?  " 

"  I'm  the  chap." 

32 


She  produced  a  photograph 


A  MAN  WITH  A  PAST 

It  was  altogether  a  new  purser  who  looked  up. 
"  Twenty  thousand  pounds  about,  and  only  two 
rupees  in  your  pocket !  Well,  well ;  it  takes  the 
East  to  bowl  a  man  over  like  this.  A  certified 
check  on  the  Bank  of  Burma  needs  no  further 
recommendation.  In  the  words  of  your  country 
men,  go  as  far  as  you  like.  You  can  pay  me  in 
Rangoon.  Your  boy  takes  deck-passage  ?  " 

"Yes,"  returning  the  check  to  the  wallet. 

"Smoke?" 

"  Shouldn't  mind.     Thanks." 

"  Now,  sit  down  and  spin  the  yarn.  It  must  be 
jolly  interesting." 

"  I'll  admit  that  it  has  been  a  tough  struggle ;  but 
I  knew  that  I  had  the  oil.  Been  flat  broke  for 
months.  Had  to  borrow  my  boy's  savings  for 
food  and  shelter.  Well,  this  is  the  way  it  runs." 
Warrington  told  it  simply,  as  if  it  were  a  great  joke. 

"  Rippin' !  By  Jove,  you  Americans  are  hard 
customers  to  put  over.  I  suppose  you'll  be  setting 
out  for  the  States  at  once  ?  "  with  a  curious  glance. 

"  I  haven't  made  any  plans  yet,"  eying  the  cheroot 
thoughtfully. 

"  I  see."     The  purser  nodded.     It  was  not  dif- 

33 


PARROT  &  CO. 

ficult  to  understand.  "  Well,  good  luck  to  you 
wherever  you  go." 

"  Much  obliged." 

Alone  in  his  stateroom  Warrington  took  out 
Rajah  and  tossed  him  on  the  counterpane  of  the 
bed. 

"  Now,  then,  old  sport ! "  tapping  the  parrot  on 
the  back  with  the  perch  which  he  used  as  a  baton. 
Blinking  and  muttering,  the  bird  performed  his 
tricks,  and  was  duly  rewarded  and  returned  to  his 
home  of  iron.  "  She'll  be  wanting  to  take  you 
home  with  her,  but  you're  not  for  sale." 

He  then  opened  his  window  and  leaned  against 
the  sill,  looking  up  at  the  stars.  But,  unlike  the 
girl,  he  did  not  ask  any  questions. 

"Free!"  he  said  softly. 


Ill 

THE   WEAK   LINK 

THE  day  began  white  and  chill,  for  February 
nights  and  mornings  are  not  particularly 
comfortable  on  the  Irrawaddy.  The  boat  sped 
down  the  river,  smoothly  and  noiselessly.  For  all 
that  the  sun  shone,  the  shore-lines  were  still  black. 
The  dust  had  not  yet  risen.  Elsa  passed  through 
the  dining-saloon  to  the  stern-deck  and  paused  at  the 
door.  The  scene  was  always  a  source  of  interest 
to  her.  There  were  a  hundred  or  more  natives 
squatting  in  groups  on  the  deck.  They  were 
wrapped  in  ragged  shawls,  cotton  rugs  of  many  col 
ors,  and  woolen  blankets,  and  their  turbans  were  as 
bright  and  colorful  as  a  Holland  tulip-bed.  Some 
of  them  were  smoking  long  pipes  and  using  their 
fists  as  mouthpieces;  others  were  scrubbing  their 
teeth  with  short  sticks  of  fibrous  wood;  and  still 
others  were  eating  rice  and  curry  out  of  little  cop 
per  pots.  There  were  very  few  Burmese  among 

35 


PARROT  &  CO. 

them.  They  were  Hindus,  from  Central  and  South 
ern  India,  with  a  scattering  of  Cingalese.  When 
ever  a  Hindu  gets  together  a  few  rupees,  he  travels. 
He  neither  cares  exactly  where  the  journey  ends, 
nor  that  he  may  never  be  able  to  return ;  so  long  as 
there  is  a  temple  at  his  destination,  that  suffices  him. 
The  past  is  the  past,  to-morrow  is  to-morrow,  but 
to-day  is  to-day:  he  lives  and  works  and  travels, 
prisoner  to  this  creed. 

Elsa  never  strolled  among  them.  She  was 
dainty.  This  world  and  these  people  were  new  and 
strange  to  her,  and  as  yet  she  could  not  quite  domi 
nate  the  fear  that  some  one  of  these  brown-skinned 
beings  might  be  coming  down  with  the  plague.  So 
she  stood  framed  in  the  doorway,  a  picture  rare  in 
deed  to  the  dark  eyes  that  sped  their  frank  glances 
in  her  direction. 

"  No,  Sahib,  no;  it  is  three  hundred." 

"James,  I  tell  you  it's  rupees  three  hundred  and 
twelve,  annas  eight." 

Upon  a  bench,  backed  against  the  partition,  al 
most  within  touch  of  her  hand,  sat  the  man  War- 
rington  and  his  servant,  arguing  over  their  accounts. 
The  former's  battered  helmet  was  tilted  at  a  com- 

36 


THE  WEAK  LINK 

fortable  angle  and  an  ancient  cutty  hung  pendent 
from  his  teeth,  an  idle  wisp  of  smoke  hovering  over 
the  blackened  bowl. 

Elsa  quietly  returned  to  her  chair  in  the  bow  and 
tried  to  become  interested  in  a  novel.  By  and  by 
the  book  slipped  from  her  fingers  to  her  lap,  and  her 
eyes  closed.  But  not  for  long.  She  heard  the  rasp 
of  a  camp-stool  being  drawn  toward  her. 

"  You  weren't  dozing,  were  you  ?  "  asked  the 
purser  apologetically. 

"  Not  in  the  least.     I  have  only  just  got  up." 

"  Shouldn't  have  disturbed  you ;  but  your  orders 
were  that  whenever  I  had  an  interesting  story  about 
the  life  over  here,  I  was  to  tell  it  to  you  instantly. 
And  this  one  is  just  rippin' ! " 

"  Begin,"  said  Elsa.  She  sat  up  and  threw  back 
her  cloak,  for  it  was  now  growing  warm.  "  It's 
about  Parrot  &  Co.,  I'm  sure." 

"  You've  hit  it  off  the  first  thing,"  admiringly. 

"  Well,  go  on." 

"  It's  better  than  any  story  you'll  read  in  a  month 
of  Sundays.  Our  man  has  just  turned  the  trick, 
as  you  Americans  say,  for  twenty  thousand  pounds." 

"  Why,  that  is  a  fortune !  " 

37 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  For  some  of  us,  yes.  You  see,  whatever  he 
was  in  the  past,  it  was  something  worth  while,  I 
fancy.  Engineering,  possibly.  Knew  his  geology 
and  all  that.  Been  wondering  for  months  what  kept 
him  hanging  around  this  bally  old  river.  Seems  he 
found  oil,  borrowed  the  savings  of  his  servant  and 
bought  up  some  land  on  the  line  of  the  new  dis 
coveries.  Then  he  waited  for  the  syndicate  to  buy. 
They  ignored  him.  They  didn't  send  any  one  even 
to  investigate  his  claim.  Stupid,  rather.  After 
a  while,  he  went  to  them,  at  Prome,  at  Rangoon. 
They  thought  they  knew  his  kind.  Ten  thousand 
rupees  was  all  he  asked.  They  laughed.  The  next 
time  he  wanted  a  hundred  thousand.  They  laughed 
again.  Then  he  left  for  the  teak  forests.  He  had 
to  live.  He  came  back  in  four  months.  In  the 
meantime  they  had  secretly  investigated.  They  of 
fered  him  fifty  thousand.  He  laughed.  He 
wanted  two  hundred  thousand.  They  advised  him 
to  raise  cocoanuts.  What  do  you  suppose  he  did 
then?" 

"  Got  some  other  persons  interested." 
"  Right-o !     Some  Americans  in   Rangoon  said 
38 


THE  WEAK  LINK 

they'd  take  it  over  for  two  hundred  thousand. 
Something  about  the  deal  got  into  the  newspapers. 
The  American  oil  men  sent  over  a  representative. 
That  settled  the  syndicate.  What  they  could  have 
originally  purchased  for  ten  thousand  they  paid 
three  hundred  thousand." 

"  Splendid ! "  cried  Elsa,  clapping  her  hands. 
She  could  see  it  all,  the  quiet  determination  of  the 
man,  the  penury  of  the  lean  years,  his  belief  in  him 
self  and  in  what  he  had  found,  and  the  disinterested 
loyalty  of  the  servant.  "  Sometimes  I  wish  I  were 
a  man  and  could  do  things  like  that." 

"  Recollect  that  landing  last  night  ?  " 

Elsa's  gesture  signified  that  she  was  glad  to  be 
miles  to  the  south  of  it. 

"  Well,  he  wasn't  above  having  his  revenge.  He 
made  the  syndicate  come  up  there.  They  wired  ask 
ing  why  he  couldn't  come  on  to  Rangoon.  And 
very  frankly  he  gave  his  reasons.  They  came  up 
on  one  boat  and  left  on  another.  They  weren't 
very  pleasant,  but  they  bought  his  oil-lands.  He 
came  aboard  last  night  with  a  check  for  twenty 
thousand  pounds  and  two  rupees  in  his  pocket. 

39 


PARROT  &  CO. 

The  two  rupees  were  all  he  had  in  this  world  at  the 
time  they  wrote  him  the  check.  Arabian  night; 
what?" 

"  I  am  glad.  I  like  pluck ;  I  like  endurance ;  I 
like  to  see  the  lone  .man  win  against  odds.  Tell  me, 
is  he  going  back  to  America  ?  " 

"  Ah,  there's  the  weak  part  in  the  chain."  The 
purser  looked  diffidently  at  the  deck  floor.  It 
would  have  been  easy  enough  to  discuss  the  War- 
rington  of  yesterday,  to  offer  an  opinion  as  to  his 
past;  but  the  Warrington  of  this  morning  was 
backed  by  twenty  thousand  good  English  sovereigns  ; 
he  was  a  different  individual,  a  step  beyond  the 
casual  damnation  of  the  mediocre.  "  He  says  he 
doesn't  know  what  his  plans  will  be.  Who  knows  ? 
Perhaps  some  one  ran  away  with  his  best  girl.  I've 
known  lots  of  them  to  wind  up  out  here  on  that 
account." 

"  Is  it  a  rule,  then,  that  disappointed  lovers  fly 
hither,  penniless  ?  " 

The  mockery  escaped  the  purser,  who  was  a  good 
iellow  in  his  blundering  way.  "  Chaps  gamble,  you 
know.  And  this  part  of  the  world  is  full  of  fleas 

40 


THE  WEAK  LINK 

and  mosquitoes  and  gamblers.  When  a  man's 
been  chucked,  he's  always  asking  what's  trumps. 
He's  not  keen  on  the  game;  and  the  professional 
gambler  takes  advantage  of  his  condition.  Oh, 
there  are  a  thousand  ways  out  here  of  getting  rid 
of  your  money  when  the  girl's  given  you  the  go 
by!" 

"  To  that  I  agree.     When  do  we  reach  Prome  ?  " 

"  About  six,"  understanding  that  the  Warrington 
incident  was  closed.  "  It  isn't  worth  while  going 
ashore,  though.  Nothing  to  see  at  night." 

"  I  have  no  inclination  to  leave  the  boat  until  we 
reach  Rangoon." 

She  met  Warrington  at  luncheon,  and  she  greeted 
him  amiably.  To  her  mind  there  was  something 
pitiful  in  the  way  the  man  had  tried  to  improve  his 
condition.  Buttons  had  been  renewed,  some  with 
black  thread  and  some  with  white;  and  there  were 
little  islands  of  brown  yarn,  at  the  elbows,  at  the 
bottom  of  the  pockets,  along  the  seams.  So  long 
as  she  lived,  no  matter  whom  she  might  marry,  she 
was  convinced  that  never  would  the  thought  of  this 
man  fade  completely  from  her  memory.  Neither 


PARROT  &  CO. 

the  amazing  likeness  nor  the  romantic  background 
had  anything  to  do  with  this  conviction.  It  was  the 
man's  utter  loneliness. 

"  I  have  been  waiting  for  Parrot  &  Co.  all  the 
morning,"  she  said. 

"  I'll  show  him  to  you  right  after  luncheon.  It 
wasn't  that  I  had  forgotten." 

She  nodded ;  but  he  did  not  comprehend  that  this 
inclination  of  the  head  explained  that  she  knew  the 
reason  of  the  absence.  She  could  in  fancy  see  the 
strong  brown  fingers  clumsily  striving  to  thread 
the  needle.  (As  a  matter  of  fact,  her  imagination 
was  at  fault.  James  had  done  the  greater  part  of 
the  repairing.) 

Rajah  took  the  center  of  the  stage ;  and  even  the 
colonel  forgot  his  liver  long  enough  to  chuckle 
when  the  bird  turned  somersaults  through  the  steel- 
hoop.  Elsa  was  delighted.  She  knelt  and  offered 
him  her  slim  white  finger.  Rajah  eyed  it  with  his 
head  cocked  at  one  side.  He  turned  insolently  and 
entered  his  cage.  Since  he  never  saw  a  finger  with 
out  flying  at  it  in  a  rage,  it  was  the  politest  thing 
he  had  ever  done. 

"Isn't  he  a  sassy  little  beggar?"  laughed  the 
42 


owner.  "  That's  the  way ;  his  hand,  or  claw, 
rather,  against  all  the  world.  I've  had  him  half  a 
dozen  years,  and  he  hates  me  just  as  thoroughly 
now  as  he  did  when  I  picked  him  up  while  I  was 
at  Jaipur." 

"  Have  you  carried  him  about  all  this  time?  "  de 
manded  the  colonel. 

"  He  was  one  of  the  two  friends  I  had,  one  of 
the  two  I  trusted,"  quietly,  with  a  look  which  rather 
disconcerted  the  Anglo-Indian. 

"  By  the  actions  of  him  I  should  say  that  he  was 
your  bitterest  enemy." 

"  He  is ;  yet  I  call  him  friend.  There's  a  pe 
culiar  thing  about  friendship,"  said  the  kneeling 
man.  "  We  make  a  man  our  friend ;  we  take  him 
on  trust,  frankly  and  loyally;  we  give  him  the  best 
we  have  in  us;  but  we  never  really  know.  Rajah 
is  frankly  my  enemy,  and  that's  why  I  love  him  and 
trust  him.  I  should  have  preferred  a  dog;  but  one 
takes  what  one  can.  Besides  .  .  ."  Warrington 
paused,  thrust  the  perch  between  the  bars,  and  got 
up. 

"  Jah,  jah,  jah !  Jah — jah — ja-a-a-h !  "  the  bird 
shrilled. 

43 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"Oh,  what  a  funny  little  bird!"  cried  Elsa, 
laughing.  "  What  does  he  say?  " 

"  I've  often  wondered.  It  sounds  like  the  bell- 
gong  you  hear  in  the  Shwe  Dagon  Pagoda,  in  Ran 
goon.  He  picked  it  up  himself." 

The  colonel  returned  to  his  elderly  charges  and 
became  absorbed  in  his  aged  Times.  If  the  girl 
wanted  to  pick  up  the  riff-raff  to  talk  to,  that  was 
her  affair.  Americans  were  impossible,  anyhow. 

"  How  long  have  you  been  in  the  Orient  ?  "  Elsa 
asked. 

"  Ten  years,"  he  answered  gravely. 

"  That  is  a  long  time." 

"  Sometimes  it  was  like  eternity." 

"  I  have  heard  from  the  purser  of  your  good 
luck." 

"  Oh !  "  He  stooped  again  and  locked  the  door 
of  Rajah's  cage.  "  I  dare  say  a  good  many  peo 
ple  will  hear  of  it." 

"  It  was  splendid.  I  love  to  read  stories  like  that, 
but  I'd  far  rather  hear  them  told  first-hand." 

Elsa  was  not  romantic  in  the  sense  that  she  saw 
heroes  where  there  were  only  ordinary  men;  but 
she  thrilled  at  the  telling  of  some  actual  adventure, 

44 


THE  WEAK  LINK 

something  big  with  life.  Her  heart  and  good  will 
went  out  to  the  man  who  won  against  odds. 
Strangely  enough,  soldier's  daughter  though  she 
was,  the  pomp  and  glamour  and  cruelty  of  war  were 
detestable  to  her.  It  was  the  obscure  and  unknown 
hero  who  appealed  to  her:  such  a  one  as  this  man 
might  be. 

"  Oh,  there  was  nothing  splendid  about  the  thing. 
I  simply  hung  on."  Then  a  thought  struck  him. 
"  You  are  traveling  alone?  " 

"  With  a  companion."  A  peculiar  question,  she 
thought. 

"  It  is  not  wise,"  he  commented. 

"  My  father  was  a  soldier,"  she  replied. 

"  It  isn't  a  question  of  bravery,"  he  replied,  a  bit 
of  color  charging  under  his  skin. 

Elsa  was  amused.  "  And,  pray,  what  question  is 
it  ?  "  He  was  like  a  boy. 

"  I'm  afraid  of  making  myself  obscure.  This 
world  is  not  like  your  world.  Women  over  here. 
.  .  .  Oh,  I've  lost  the  art  of  saying  things  clearly." 
He  pulled  at  his  beard  embarrassedly. 

"  I  rather  believe  I  understand  you.  The  veneer 
cracks  easily  in  hot  climates ;  man's  veneer." 

45 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"And  falls  off  altogether." 

"  Are  you  warning  me  against  yourself?  " 

"  Why  not  ?  Twenty  thousand  pounds  do  not 
change  a  man;  they  merely  change  the  public's 
opinion  of  him.  For  all  you  know,  I  may  be  the 
greatest  rascal  unhanged." 

"  But  you  are  not." 

He  recognized  that  it  was  not  a  query;  and  a 
pleasurable  thrill  ran  over  him.  Had  there  been 
the  least  touch  of  condescension  in  her  manner,  he 
would  have  gone  deep  into  his  shell. 

"  No ;  there  are  worse  men  in  this  world  than  I. 
But  we  are  getting  away  from  the  point,  of  women 
traveling  alone  in  the  East.  Oh,  I  know  you  can 
protect  yourself  to  a  certain  extent.  But  every 
where,  on  boats,  in  the  hotels,  on  the  streets,  are 
men  who  have  discarded  all  the  laws  of  convention, 
of  the  social  contract.  And  they  have  the  keen  eye 
of  the  kite  and  the  vulture." 

To  Elsa  this  interest  in  her  welfare  was  very  di 
verting.  "  In  other  words,  they  can  quickly  dis 
cover  the  young  woman  who  goes  about  unpro 
tected?  Don't  you  think  that  the  trend  of  the  con- 

46 


THE  WEAK  LINK 

versation  has  taken  rather  a  remarkable  turn,  not  as 
impersonal  as  it  should  be?  " 

"  I  beg  your  pardon !  " 

"  I  am  neither  an  infant  nor  a  fool,  Mr.  War- 
rington." 

"Shall  I  go?" 

"  No.  I  want  you  to  tell  me  some  stories."  She 
laughed.  "  Don't  worry  about  me,  Mr.  Warring- 
ton.  I  have  gone  my  way  alone  since  I  was  six 
teen.  I  have  traveled  all  over  this  wicked  world 
with  nobody  but  the  woman  who  was  once  my 
nurse.  I  seldom  put  myself  in  the  way  of  an  af 
front.  I  am  curious  without  being  of  an  investi 
gating  turn  of  mind.  Now,  tell  me  something  of 
your  adventures.  Ten  years  in  this  land  must 
mean  something.  I  am  always  hunting  for  Harun- 
al-Raschid,  or  Sindbad,  or  some  one  who  has  done 
something  out  of  the  ordinary." 

"  Do  you  write  books  ?  " 

"  No,  I  read  them  by  preference." 

"  Ah,  a  good  book ! "  He  inclined  against  the 
rail  and  stared  down  at  the  muddy  water.  "  Ad 
venture  ? "  He  frowned  a  little.  "  I'm  afraid 

47 


PARROT  &  CO. 

mine  wouldn't  read  like  adventures.  There's  no 
glory  in  being  a  stevedore  on  the  docks  at  Hong 
kong,  a  stoker  on  a  tramp  steamer  between  Singa 
pore  and  the  Andaman  Islands.  What  haven't  I 
been  in  these  ten  years?  "  with  a  shrug.  "  Can  you 
fancy  me  a  deck-steward  on  a  P.  &  O.  boat,  tucking 
old  ladies  in  their  chairs,  staggering  about  with  a 
tray  of  broth-bowls,  helping  the  unsteady  to  their 
staterooms,  and  touching  my  cap  at  the  end  of  the 
voyage  for  a  few  shillings  in  tips  ?  " 

"  You  are  bitter." 

"  Bitter  ?  I  ought  not  to  be,  with  twenty  thou 
sand  pounds  in  my  pocket." 

"  Tell  me  more." 

He  looked  into  her  beautiful  face,  animated  by 
genuine  interest,  and  wondered  if  all  men  were  will 
ing  so  readily  to  obey  her. 

"  It  always  interests  me  to  hear  from  the  man's 
own  lips  how  he  overcame  obstacles." 

"  Sometimes  I  didn't  overcome  them.  I  ran 
away.  After  all,  the  strike  in  oil  was  a  fluke." 

"  I  don't  think  so.     But  go  on,"  she  prompted. 

"  Well,  I've  been  manager  of  a  cocoanut  planta 
tion  in  Penang;  I've  helped  lay  tracks  in  Upper 

48 


THE  WEAK  LINK 

India;  had  a  hand  in  some  bridges;  sold  patent- 
medicines;  worked  in  a  ruby  mine;  been  a  haber 
dasher  in  the  Whiteaway,  Laidlaw  shop  in  Bombay ; 
cut  wood  in  the  teak  forests;  helped  exterminate 
the  plague  at  Chitor  and  Udaipur;  and  never  saved 
a  penny.  I  never  had  an  adventure  in  all  my  life." 

"  Why,  your  wanderings  were  adventures,"  she 
insisted.  "  Think  of  the  things  you  could  tell !  " 

"  And  never  will,"  a  smile  breaking  over  his  face. 

How  like  Arthur's  that  smile  was!  thought  the 
girl.  "  Romantic  persons  never  have  any  adven 
tures.  It  is  to  the  prosaic  these  things  fall.  Be 
cause  of  their  nearness  you  lose  their  values." 

"  There  is  some  difference  between  romance  and 
adventure.  Romance  is  what  you  look  forward  to ; 
adventure  is  something  you  look  back  upon.  If 
many  disagreeable  occupations,  hunger  and  an  oc 
casional  fisticuff,  may  be  classed  as  adventure,  then 
I  have  had  my  run  of  it.  But  I  always  supposed 
adventure  was  the  finding  of  treasures,  on  land  and 
on  sea;  of  filibustering;  of  fighting  with  sabers  and 
pistols,  and  all  that  rigmarole.  I  can't  quite  lift 
my  imagination  up  to  the  height  of  calling  my  six 
months'  shovel-engineering  on  The  Galle  an  adven- 

49 


PARROT  &  CO. 

ture.  It  was  brutal  hard  work;  and  many  times  I 
wanted  to  jump  over.  The  Lascars  often  got  out 
of  trouble  that  way." 

"  It  all  depends  upon  how  we  look  at  things." 
She  touched  the  parrot-cage  with  her  foot,  and 
Rajah  hissed.  "  What  would  you  say  if  I  told  you 
that  I  was  unconventional  enough  to  ask  the  purser 
to  introduce  you  ?  " 

The  amazement  in  his  face  was  answer  enough. 

"  Don't  you  suppose,"  she  went  on,  "  the  picture 
you  presented,  standing  on  that  ledge,  the  red  light 
of  the  torch  on  your  face,  the  bird-cage  in  your 
hand, —  don't  you  suppose  you  roused  my  sense  of 
the  romantic  to  the  highest  pitch  ?  Parrot  &  Co. !  " 
with  a  wave  of  her  hands. 

She  was  laughing  at  him.  It  could  not  be  other 
wise.  It  made  him  at  once  sad  and  angry.  "  Ro 
mance!  I  hate  the  word.  Once  I  was  as  full  of 
romance  as  a  water-chestnut  is  of  starch.  I  again 
affirm  that  young  women  should  not  travel  alone. 
They  think  every  bit  of  tinsel  is  gold,  every  bit  of 
colored  glass,  ruby.  Go  home;  don't  bother  about 
romance  outside  of  books.  There  it  is  safe.  The 
English  are  right.  They  may  be  snobs  when  they 

50 


THE  WEAK  LINK 

travel  abroad,  but  they  travel  securely.  Romance, 
adventure!  Bah!  So  much  twaddle  has  been 
written  about  the  East  that  cads  and  scoundrels 
are  mistaken  for  Galahads  and  D'Artagnans. 
Few  men  remain  in  this  country  who  can  with 
honor  leave  it.  Who  knows  what  manner  of  man 
lam?" 

He  picked  up  the  parrot-cage  and  strode  away. 

"  Jah,  jah !  "  began  the  bird. 

Not  all  the  diplomacy  which  worldly-wise  men 
have  at  their  disposal  could  have  drawn  this  girl's 
interest  more  surely  than  the  abrupt  rude  manner 
of  his  departure. 


IV 

TWO   DAYS    OF    PARADISE 

AT  first  Elsa  did  not  know  whether  she  was  an 
noyed  or  amused.  The  man's  action  was  ab 
surd,  or  would  have  been  in  any  other  man. 
There  was  something  so  singularly  boyish  in  his 
haste  that  she  realized  she  could  not  deal  with  him 
in  an  ordinary  fashion.  She  ought  to  be  angry; 
indeed,  she  wanted  to  be  very  angry  with  him;  but 
her  lips  curled,  and  laughter  hung  upon  them,  un 
decided.  His  advice  to  her  to  go  home  was  down 
right  impudence;  and  yet,  the  sight  of  the  parrot- 
cage,  dangling  at  his  side,  made  it  impossible  for 
her  to  take  lasting  offense.  Once  upon  a  time  there 
had  been  a  little  boy  who  played  in  her  garden. 
When  he  was  cross  he  would  take  his  playthings 
and  go  home.  The  boy  might  easily  have  been  this 
man  Warrington,  grown  up. 

Of  course  he  would  come  and  apologize  to  her 
for  his  rudeness.     That  was  one  of  the  necessary 

52 


TWO  DAYS  OF  PARADISE 

laws  of  convention;  and  ten  years  spent  in  jungles 
and  deserts  and  upon  southern  seas  could  not  pos 
sibly  have  robbed  him  of  the  memory  of  these 
simple  ethics  that  he  had  observed  in  other  and 
better  times.  Perhaps  he  had  resented  her  curi 
osity;  perhaps  her  questions  had  been  pressed  too 
hard;  and  perhaps  he  had  suddenly  doubted  her 
genuine  interest.  At  any  rate,  it  was  a  novel  ex 
perience.  And  that  bewildering  likeness! 

She  returned  to  her  chair  and  opened  the  book 
again.  And  as  she  read  her  wonder  grew.  How 
trivial  it  was,  after  all.  The  men  and  women  she 
had  calmly  and  even  gratefully  accepted  as  types 
were  nothing  more  than  marionettes,  which  the 
author  behind  the  booth  manipulated  not  badly  but 
perfunctorily.  The  diction  was  exquisite;  there 
was  style ;  but  now  as  she  read  there  was  lacking  the 
one  thing  that  stood  for  life,  blood.  It  did  not 
pulsate  in  the  veins  of  these  people.  Until  now  she 
had  not  recognized  this  fact,  and  she  was  half-way 
through  the  book.  She  even  took  the  trouble  to  re 
read  the  chapter  she  had  thought  peculiarly  effec 
tive.  There  was  the  same  lack  of  feeling.  What 
had  happened  to  her  since  yesterday?  To  what 

53 


PARROT  &  CO. 

might  be  assigned  this  opposite  angle  of  vi 
sion,  so  clearly  defined? 

The  book  fell  upon  her  knees,  and  dreamily  she 
watched  the  perspective  open  and  divaricate.  Full 
in  her  face  the  south  wind  blew,  now  warmed  by 
the  sun  and  perfumed  by  unknown  spices.  She 
took  in  little  sharp  breaths,  but  always  the  essence 
escaped  her.  The  low  banks  with  their  golden  haze 
of  dust,  the  cloudless  sky,  the  sad  and  lonely  white 
pagodas,  charmed  her;  and  the  languor  of  the  East 
crept  stealthily  into  her  northern  blood.  She  was 
not  conscious  of  the  subtle  change;  she  only  knew 
that  the  world  of  yesterday  was  unlike  that  of  to 
day. 

Warrington,  after  depositing  Rajah  in  the  state 
room,  sought  the  bench  on  the  stern-deck.  He 
filled  his  cutty  with  purser-loaned  tobacco,  and 
roundly  damned  himself  as  a  blockhead.  He  had 
forgotten  all  the  niceties  of  civilization;  he  no 
longer  knew  how  to  behave.  What  if  she  had  been 
curious?  It  was  natural  that  she  should  be.  This 
was  a  strange  world  to  her,  and  if  her  youth  rosal- 
tinted  it  with  romance,  what  right  had  he  to  disil 
lusion  her?  The  first  young  woman  in  all  these 

54 


TWO  DAYS  OF  PARADISE 

years  who  had  treated  him  as  an  equal,  and  he  had 
straightway  proceeded  to  lecture  her  upon  the  evils 
of  traveling  alone  in  the  Orient!  Double-dyed 
ass!  He  had  been  rude  and  impudent.  He  had 
seen  other  women  traveling  alone,  but  the  sight 
had  not  roused  him  as  in  the  present  instance.  In 
ten  years  he  had  not  said  so  much  to  all  the  women 
he  had  met;  and  without  seeming  effort  at  all  she 
had  dragged  forth  some  of  the  half-lights  of  his 
past.  This  in  itself  amazed  him ;  it  proved  that  he 
was  still  weak  enough  to  hunger  for  human  sympa 
thy,  and  he  of  all  men  deserved  none  whatever. 
He  had  been  a  fool  as  a  boy,  a  fool  as  a  man,  and 
without  doubt  he  would  die  a  fool.  He  was  of  half 
a  mind  to  leave  the  boat  at  Prome  and  take  the 
train  down  to  Rangoon. 

And  yet  he  had  told  her  the  truth.  It  was  not 
right  that  a  young  and  attractive  woman  should 
wander  about  in  the  East,  unattended  save  by  a 
middle-aged  companion.  It  would  provoke  the 
devil  in  men  who  were  not  wholly  bad.  Women 
had  the  fallible  idea  that  they  could  read  human  na 
ture,  and  never  found  out  their  mistake  until  after 
they  were  married.  He  knew  her  kind.  If  she 

55 


PARROT  &  CO. 

wanted  to  walk  through  the  bazaars  in  the  evening, 
she  would  do  so.  If  a  man  followed  her  she  would 
ignore  the  fact.  If  he  caught  up  with  her  and 
spoke,  she  would  continue  on  as  if  she  had  not 
heard.  If  a  man  touched  her,  she  would  rely  upon 
the  fire  of  her  eyes.  She  would  never  call  out  for 
help.  Some  women  were  just  that  silly. 

He  bit  hard  upon  the  stem  of  his  pipe.  What 
was  all  this  to  him?  Why  should  he  bother  his 
head  about  a  woman  he  had  known  but  a  few 
hours?  Ah,  why  lie  to  himself?  He  knew  what 
Elsa,  usually  quick  and  receptive,  did  not  know,  that 
he  was  not  afraid  of  her,  but  terribly  afraid  of 
himself.  For  things  ripen  quickly  in  the  East,  men 
and  women,  souls  and  deeds.  And  he  was  some 
thing  like  the  pariah-dog;  spoken  kindly  to,  it  at 
tached  itself  immediately  and  enduringly. 

He  struck  the  cutty  against  his  boot-heel.  Why 
not?  It  would  be  only  for  two  days.  At  Rangoon 
their  paths  would  separate ;  he  would  never  see  her 
again.  He  got  up.  He  would  go  to  her  at  once 
and  apologize  abjectly.  And  thus  he  surrendered 
to  the  very  devil  he  had  but  a  moment  gone  so 
vigorously  discountenanced. 

56 


TWO  DAYS  OF  PARADISE 

He  found  her  asleep  in  her  chair.  The  devil 
which  had  brought  him  to  her  side  was  thrust  back. 
Why,  she  was  nothing  more  than  a  beautiful  child ! 
A  great  yearning  to  brother  her  came  into  his  heart. 
He  did  not  disturb  her,  but  waited  until  five,  that 
grave  and  sober  hour,  when  kings  and  clerks  stop 
work  for  no  logical  reason  whatever  —  tea.  She 
opened  her  eyes  and  saw  him  watching  her.  He 
rose  quickly. 

"  May  I  get  you  some  tea  ?  " 

"  Thank  you." 

And  so  the  gulf  was  bridged.  When  he  returned 
he  set  the  cup  and  plate  of  cakes  on  the  arm  of  her 
chair. 

"  I  was  very  rude  a  little  while  ago.  Will  you 
accept  my  apologies  ?  " 

"  On  condition  that  you  will  never  take  your 
playthings  and  go  home." 

He  laughed  engagingly.  "  You've  hit  it  squarely. 
It  was  the  act  of  a  petulant  child." 

"  It  did  not  sound  exactly  like  a  man  who  had 
stoked  six  months  from  Singapore  to  the  Andaman 
Islands.  But  there  is  one  thing  I  must  understand 
before  this  acquaintance  continues.  You  said, 

57 


PARROT  &  CO. 

'Who  knows  what  manner  of  man  I  am?'  Have 
you  ever  done  anything  that  would  conscien 
tiously  forbid  you  to  speak  to  a  young  unmarried 
woman'?  " 

Take  care  of  herself?  He  rather  believed  she 
could.  The  bluntness  of  her  question  dissipated 
any  doubt  that  remained. 

"  No.  I  haven't  been  that  kind  of  a  man," 
simply.  "  I  could  look  into  my  mother's  eyes  with 
out  any  sense  of  shame,  if  that  is  what  you  mean." 

"That  is  all  I  care  to  know.  Your  mother  is 
living?" 

"  Yes.  But  I  haven't  seen  her  in  ten  years." 
His  mother!  His  brows  met  in  a  frown.  His 
proud  beautiful  mother ! 

Elsa  saw  the  frown,  and  realized  that  she  had  ap 
proached  delicate  ground.  She  stirred  her  tea  and 
sipped  it  slowly. 

"  There  has  been  a  deal  of  chatter  about  shifty 
untrustworthy  eyes,"  he  said.  "  The  greatest  liars 
I  have  ever  known  could  look  St.  Peter  straight  and 
serenely  in  the  eye.  It's  a  matter  of  steady  nerves, 
nothing  more.  Somebody  says  that  so  and  so  is  a 

.58 


She  saw  him  watching  her 


TWO  DAYS  OF  PARADISE 

fact,  and  we  go  on  believing  it  for  years,  until  some 
one  who  is  not  a  person  but  an  individual  explodes 
it." 

"  I  agree  with  you.  But  there  is  something  we 
rely  upon  far  more  than  either  eyes  or  ears,  in 
stinct.  It  is  that  attribute  of  the  animal  which  civi 
lization  has  not  yet  successfully  dulled.  Women 
rely  upon  that  more  readily  than  men." 

"  And  make  more  mistakes,"  with  a  cynicism  he 
could  not  conceal. 

She  had  no  ready  counter  for  this.  "  Do  you 
go  home  from  Rangoon,  now  that  you  have  made 
your  fortune  ?  " 

"  No.  I  am  going  to  Singapore.  I  shall  make 
my  plans  there." 

Singapore.  Elsa  stirred  uneasily.  It  would  be 
like  having  a  ghost  by  her  side.  She  wanted  to 
tell  him  what  had  really  drawn  her  interest.  But 
it  seemed  to  her  that  the  moment  to  do  so  had 
passed. 

"  Vultures !  How  I  detest  them !  "  She  pointed 
toward  a  sand-bar  upon  which  stood  several  of  these 
abominable  birds  and  an  adjutant,  solemn  and  aloof. 

59 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"At  Lucknow  they  were  red-headed.  I  do  not 
recollect  seeing  one  of  them  fly.  But  I  admire  the 
kites;  they  look  so  much  like  our  eagles." 

"  And  thus  again  the  eye  misleads  us.  There  is 
nothing  that  flies  so  rapacious  as  the  kite." 

Little  by  little  she  drew  from  him  a  sketch  here, 
a  phase  there.  She  was  given  glimpses  into  the 
life  of  the  East  such  as  no  book  or  guide  had  ever 
given;  and  the  boat  was  circling  toward  the  land 
ing  at  Prome  before  they  became  aware  of  the  time. 

Warrington  rushed  ashore  to  find  the  dry-goods 
shop.  His  social  redemption  was  on  the  way,  if 
vanity  went  for  anything.  It  was  stirring  and 
tingling  with  life  again.  With  the  money  advanced 
by  the  purser  he  bought  shirts  and  collars  and  ties; 
and  as  he  possessed  no  watch,  returned  barely  in 
time  to  dress  for  dinner.  He  was  not  at  all  dis 
turbed  to  learn  that  the  inquisitive  German,  the 
colonel  and  his  fidgety  charges,  had  decided  to  pro 
ceed  to  Rangoon  by  rail.  Indeed,  there  was  a  bit 
of  exultation  in  his  manner  as  he  observed  the  va 
cant  chairs.  Paradise  for  two  whole  days.  And 
he  proposed  to  make  the  most  of  it.  Now,  his  mind 
was  as  clear  of  evil  as  a  forest  spring.  He  simply 

60 


TWO  DAYS  OF  PARADISE 

wanted  to  play;  wanted  to  give  rein  to  the  lighter 
emotions  so  long  pent  up  in  his  lonely  heart. 

The  purser,  used  to  these  sudden  changes  and 
desertions  in  his  passenger-lists,  gave  the  situation 
no  thought.  But  Elsa  saw  a  mild  danger,  all  the 
more  alluring  because  it  hung  nebulously.  For 
years  she  had  walked  in  conformity  with  the 
cramped  and  puerile  laws  that  govern  society. 
She  had  obeyed  most  of  them  from  habit,  others 
from  necessity.  What  harm  could  there  be  in  hav 
ing  a  little  fling?  He  was  so  amazingly  like  out 
wardly,  so  astonishingly  unlike  inwardly,  that  the 
situation  held  for  her  a  subtle  fascination  against 
which  she  was  in  nowise  inclined  to  fight.  What 
had  nature  in  mind  when  she  produced  two  men  ex 
actly  alike  in  appearance  but  in  reality  as  far  apart 
as  the  poles  ?  Would  it  be  worth  while  to  find  out  ? 
She  was  not  wholly  ignorant  of  her  power.  She 
could  bend  the  man  if  she  tried.  Should  she  try? 

They  were  like  two  children,  setting  out  to  play 
a  game  with  fire. 

She  thought  of  Arthur.  Had  he  gone  the  length 
of  his  thirty-five  years  without  his  peccadillos? 
Scarcely.  She  understood  the  general  run  of  men 

61 


PARROT  &  CO. 

well  enough  to  accept  this  fact.  Whomever  she 
married  she  was  never  going  to  worry  him  with 
questions  regarding  his  bachelor  life.  Nor  did  she 
propose  to  be  questioned  about  her  own  past.  Be 
sides,  she  hadn't  married  Arthur  yet;  she  had  only 
promised  to.  And  such  promises  were  sometimes 
sensibly  broken.  There  ran  through  her  a  fine  vein 
of  mercilessness,  but  it  was  without  cruelty,  it  was 
leavened  with  both  logic  and  justice.  When  the 
time  came  she  would  name  the  day  to  Arthur,  or  she 
would  with  equal  frankness  announce  that  she 
would  not  marry  him  at  all.  These  thoughts 
flashed  through  her  mind,  disconnectedly,  while  she 
talked  and  laughed. 

It  never  occurred  to  her  to  have  Martha  moved 
up  from  the  foot  of  the  table.  Once  or  twice  she 
stole  a  glance  at  the  woman  who  had  in  the  olden 
days  dandled  her  on  her  knees.  The  glance  was  a 
mixture  of  guilt  and  mischief,  like  a  child's.  But 
the  glance  had  not  the  power  to  attract  Martha's 
eyes.  Martha  felt  the  glances  as  surely  as  if  she 
had  lifted  her  eyes  to  meet  them.  She  held  her 
peace.  She  had  not  been  brought  along  as  Elsa's 
guardian.  Elsa  was  not  self-willed  but  strong- 

62 


TWO  DAYS  OF  PARADISE 

willed,  and  Martha  realized  that  any  interference 
would  result  in  estrangement.  In  fact,  Martha  be 
held  in  Warrington  a  real  menace.  The  extraor 
dinary  resemblance  would  naturally  appeal  to 
Elsa,  with  what  results  she  could  only  imagine. 
Later  she  asked  Elsa  if  she  had  told  Warrington  of 
the  remarkable  resemblance. 

"  Mercy,  no !  And  what  is  more,  I  do  not  want 
him  to  know.  Men  are  vain  as  a  rule;  and  I 
should  not  like  to  hurt  his  vanity  by  telling  him  that 
I  sought  his  acquaintance  simply  because  he  might 
easily  have  been  Arthur  Ellison's  twin  brother." 

"  The  man  you  are  engaged  to  marry." 

"  Whom  I  have  promised  to  marry,  provided  the 
state  of  my  sentiments  is  unchanged  upon  my  re 
turn;  which  is  altogether  a  different  thing." 

"  That  does  not  seem  quite  fair  to  Mr.  Ellison." 

"Well,  Martha?" 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  Elsa ;  but  the  stranger  ter 
rifies  me.  He  is  something  uncanny." 

"  Nonsense !  You've  been  reading  tales  about 
Yogii." 

"  It  is  a  terrible  country." 

"  It  is  the  East,  Martha,  the  East.     Here  a  man 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

may  wear  a  dress-suit  and  a  bowler  without  offend 
ing  any  one." 

"  And  a  woman  may  talk  to  any  one  she  pleases." 

"  Is  that  a  criticism?  " 

"No,  Elsa;  it  is  what  you  call  the  East." 

"  You  have  been  with  me  twenty  years,"  began 
Elsa  coldly. 

"  And  love  you  better  than  the  whole  world ! 
And  I  wish  I  could  guard  you  always  from  harm 
and  evil.  Those  horrid  old  Englishwomen  .  .  ." 

"  Oh ;  so  there's  been  gossip  already  ?  You 
know  my  views  regarding  gossip.  So  long  as  I 
know  that  I  am  doing  no  wrong,  ladies  may  gossip 
their  heads  off.  I'm  not  a  kitten." 

"  You  are  twenty-five,  and  yet  you're  only  a 
child." 

"  What  does  that  signify?  That  I  am  too  young 
to  manage  my  own  affairs?  That  I  must  set  my 
clock  as  others  order?  Good  soul!"  putting  her 
arms  around  the  older  woman.  "  Don't  worry 
about  Elsa  Chetwood.  Her  life  is  her  own,  but 
she  will  never  misuse  it." 

"  Oh,  if  you  were  only  married  and  settled 
down!" 

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TWO  DAYS  OF  PARADISE 

"  You  mean,  if  I  were  happily  married  and  set 
tled  down.  There  you  have  it.  I'm  in  search  of 
happiness.  That's  the  Valley  of  Diamonds. 
When  I  find  that,  Martha,  you  may  fold  your  hands 
in  peace." 

"  Grant  it  may  be  soon !    I  hate  the  East !  " 
"  And  I  have  just  begun  to  love  it." 


BACK   TO   LIFE 

THE  two  days  between  Prome  and  Rangoon 
were  distinctly  memorable  for  the  subtle 
changes  wrought  in  the  man  and  woman.  Those 
graces  of  mind  and  manner  which  had  once  been 
the  man's,  began  to  find  expression.  Physically, 
his  voice  became  soft  and  mellow ;  his  hands  became 
full  of  emphasis;  his  body  grew  less  and  less 
clumsy,  more  and  more  leonine.  It  has  taken  cen 
turies  and  centuries  to  make  the  white  man  what 
he  is  to-day;  yet,  a  single  year  of  misfortune  may 
throw  him  back  into  the  primordial.  For  it  is  far 
easier  to  retrograde  than  to  go  forward,  easier  to 
let  the  world  go  by  than  to  march  along  with  it. 
Had  he  been  less  interested  in  Elsa  and  more  con 
cerned  about  his  rehabilitation,  self-analysis  would 
have  astonished  Warrington.  The  blunt  speech, 
the  irritability  in  argument,  the  stupid  pauses,  the 
painful  study  of  cunning  phrases,  the  suspicion  and 

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BACK  TO  LIFE 

reticence  that  figuratively  encrust  the  hearts  of 
shy  and  lonely  men,  these  vanished  under  her  warm 
if  careless  glances.  For  the  first  time  in  ten  years 
a  woman  of  the  right  sort  was  showing  interest 
in  him.  True,  there  had  been  other  women,  but 
these  had  served  only  to  make  him  retreat  farther 
into  his  shell. 

If  the  crust  of  barbarism  is  thick,  that  of  civili 
zation  is  thin  enough.  As  Warrington  went  for 
ward,  Elsa  stopped,  and  gradually  went  back,  not 
far,  but  far  enough  to  cause  her  to  throw  down  the 
bars  of  reserve,  to  cease  to  guard  her  impulses 
against  the  invasion  of  interest  and  fascination. 
She  faced  the  truth  squarely,  without  palter.  The 
man  fascinated  her.  He  was  like  a  portrait  with 
following  eyes.  She  spoke  familiarly  of  her  af 
fairs  (always  omitting  Arthur)  ;  she  talked  of  her 
travels,  of  the  famous  people  she  had  met,  of  the 
wonderful  pageants  she  had  witnessed.  And  she 
secretly  laugned  at  reproachful  conscience  that 
urged  her  to  recall  one  of  those  laws  Elsa  herself 
had  written  down  to  follow:  that  which  forbade  a 
young  unmarried  woman  to  seek  the  companionship 
of  a  man  about  whom  she  knew  nothing.  It  was 

67 


PARROT  &  CO. 

not  her  fault  that,  with  the  exception  of  Martha 
who  didn't  count,  they  two  were  the  only  pas 
sengers.  This  condition  of  affairs  was  directly 
chargeable  to  fate;  and  before  the  boat  reached 
Rangoon,  Elsa  was  quite  willing  to  let  fate  shift  and 
set  the  scenes  how  it  would.  The  first  step  toward 
reversion  is  the  casting  aside  of  one's  responsi 
bilities.  Elsa  shifted  her  cares  to  the  shoulders  of 
fate.  So  long  as  the  man  behaved  himself,  so  long 
as  he  treated  her  with  respect,  real  or  feigned,  noth 
ing  else  mattered. 

The  phase  that  escaped  her  entirely  was  this,  that 
had  he  not  progressed,  she  would  have  retained  her 
old  poise,  the  old  poise  of  which  she  was  never  again 
to  be  mistress.  It  is  the  old  tale :  sympathy  to  lift 
up  another  first  steps  down.  And  never  had  her 
sympathy  gone  out  so  quickly  to  any  mortal.  Elsa 
had  a  horror  of  loneliness,  and  this  man  seemed  to 
be  the  living  presentment  of  the  word.  What  strug 
gles,  and  how  simply  he  recounted  them!  What 
things  he  had  seen,  what  adventures  had  befallen 
him,  what  romance  and  mystery!  She  wondered 
if  there  had  been  a  woman  in  his  life  and  if  she  had 
been  the  cause  of  his  downfall.  Every  day  of  the 

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BACK  TO  LIFE 

past  ten  years  lay  open  for  her  to  admire  or  con 
demn,  but  beyond  these  ten  years  there  was  a 
Chinese  Wall,  over  which  she  might  not  look.  Only 
once  had  she  provoked  the  silent  negative  nod  of  his 
head.  He  was  strong.  Not  the  smallest  corner  of 
the  veil  was  she  permitted  to  turn  aside.  She 
walked  hither  and  thither  along  the  scarps  and  bas 
tions  of  the  barrier,  but  never  found  the  breach. 

"  Will  you  come  and  dine  with  me  to-night  ?  "  she 
asked,  as  they  left  the  boat. 

"  No,  Miss  Innocence." 

"  That's  silly.     There  isn't  a  soul  I  know  here." 

"  But,"  gravely  he  replied,  "  there  are  many  here 
who  know  me." 

"  Which  infers  that  my  invitation  is  unwise  ?  " 

"  Absolutely  unwise." 

"Tea?" 

"  Frankly,  I  ought  not  to  be  seen  with  you." 

"  Why  ?  Unless,  indeed,  you  have  not  told  me 
the  truth." 

"  I  have  told  you  the  truth." 

"  Then  where's  the  harm?  " 

"  For  myself,  none.  On  the  boat  it  did  not  mat 
ter  so  much.  It  was  a  situation  which  neither  of 

69 


PARROT  &  CO. 

us  could  foresee  nor  prevent.  I  have  told  you  that 
people  here  look  askance  at  me  because  they  know 
nothing  about  me,  save  that  I  came  from  the  States. 
And  they  are  wise.  I  should  be  a  cad  if  I  accepted 
your  invitation  to  dinner." 

"  Then,  I  am  not  to  see  you  again  ?  " 

The  smile  would  have  lured  him  across  three 
continents.  "  To-morrow,  I  promise  to  call  and 
have  tea  with  you,  much  against  my  better  judg 
ment." 

"  Oh,  if  you  don't  want  to  come  .  .  ." 

"  Don't  want  to  come !  " 

Something  in  his  eyes  caused  Elsa  to  speak  hur 
riedly.  "  Good-by  until  to-morrow." 

She  gave  him  her  hand  for  a  moment,  stepped 
into  the  carriage,  which  already  held  Martha  and 
the  luggage,  and  then  drove  off  to  the  Strand 
Hotel. 

He  stood  with  his  helmet  in  his  hand.  A  fine 
warm  rain  was  falling,  but  he  was  not  conscious  of 
it.  It  seemed  incredible  that  time  should  produce 
such  a  change  within  the  space  of  seventy  hours,  a 
little  more,  a  little  less.  As  she  turned  and  waved 
a  friendly  hand,  he  knew  that  the  desolation  which 

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BACK  TO  LIFE 

had  been  his  for  ten  years  was  nothing  as  compared 
to  that  which  now  fell  upon  his  heart.  She  was  as 
unattainable  as  the  north  star;  and  nothing,  time 
nor  circumstance,  could  bridge  that  incalculable  dis 
tance.  She  was  the  most  exquisite  contradiction; 
in  one  moment  the  guilelessness  of  a  child,  in  an 
other,  the  worldly-wise  woman.  Had  she  been  all 
of  the  one  or  all  of  the  other,  he  would  not  have 
been  touched  so  deeply.  If  she  loved  a  man,  there 
would  be  no  silly  doddering;  the  voice  of  the  petty 
laws  that  strove  to  hedge  her  in  would  be  in  her 
ears  as  a  summer  breeze.  For  one  so  young  —  and 
twenty -five  was  young  —  she  possessed  a  disconcert 
ing  directness  in  her  logic.  So  far  he  observed  that 
she  retained  but  one  illusion,  that  somewhere  in  the 
world  there  was  a  man  worth  loving.  His  heart 
hurt  him.  He  must  see  her  no  more  after  the  mor 
row.  Enchantment  and  happiness  were  two  words 
which  fate  had  ruthlessly  scratched  from  his  book 
of  days. 

Mr.  Hooghly  had  already  started  off  toward  the 
town,  the  kit-bag  and  the  valise  slung  across  his 
shoulders,  the  parrot-cage  bobbing  at  his  side.  He 
knew  where  to  go;  an  obscure  lodging  for  men  in 


PARROT  &  CO. 

the  heart  of  the  business  section,  known  in  jest  by 
the  derelicts  as  The  Stranded. 

Warrington,  becoming  suddenly  aware  that  his 
pose,  if  prolonged,  would  become  ridiculous,  put 
on  his  helmet  and  proceeded  to  the  Bank  of  Burma. 
To-day  was  Wednesday;  Thursday  week  he  would 
sail  for  Singapore  and  close  the  chapter.  Before 
banking  hours  were  over,  his  financial  affairs  were 
put  in  order,  and  he  walked  forth  with  two  letters 
of  credit  and  enough  bank-notes  and  gold  to  carry 
him  around  the  world,  if  so  he  planned.  Next,  he 
visited  a  pawn-shop  and  laid  down  a  dozen  mutilated 
tickets,  receiving  in  return  a  handsome  watch, 
emerald  cuff-buttons,  some  stick-pins,  some  pearls, 
and  a  beautiful  old  ruby  ring,  a  gift  of  the  young 
Maharajah  of  Udaipur.  The  ancient  Chinaman 
smiled.  This  was  a  rare  occasion.  Men  generally 
went  out  of  his  dark  and  dingy  shop  and  never 
more  returned. 

"  Much  money.     Can  do  now  ?  "  affably. 

"  Can  do,"  replied  Warrington,  slipping  the 
treasures  into  a  pocket.  What  a  struggle  it  had 
been  to  hold  them!  Somehow  or  other  he  had  al 
ways  been  able  to  meet  the  interest;  though,  often 

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BACK  TO  LIFE 

to  accomplish  this  feat  he  had  been  forced  to  go 
without  tobacco  for  weeks. 

There  is  a  vein  of  superstition  in  all  of  us,  deny 
it  how  we  will.  Certain  inconsequent  things  we  do 
or  avoid  doing.  We  never  walk  home  on  the  op 
posite  side  of  the  street.  We  carry  luck-stones  and 
battered  pieces  of  copper  that  have  ceased  to  serve 
as  coins.  We  fill  the  garret  with  useless  junk. 
Warrington  was  as  certain  of  the  fact  as  he  was  of 
the  rising  and  the  setting  of  the  sun,  that  if  he 
lost  these  heirlooms,  he  never  could  go  back  to  the 
old  familiar  world,  the  world  in  which  he  had 
moved  and  lived  and  known  happiness.  Never 
again  would  he  part  with  them.  A  hundred  thou 
sand  dollars,  almost;  with  his  simple  wants  he  was 
now  a  rich  man. 

"Buy  ling?"  asked  the  Chinaman.  He  rolled 
a  mandarin's  ring  carelessly  across  the  show-case. 
"  Gold ;  all  heavy ;  velly  old,  velly  good  ling." 

"  What  does  it  say  ?  "  asked  Warrington,  point 
ing  to  the  characters. 

"  Good  luck  and  plospeity ;  velly  good  signs." 

It  was  an  unusually  beautiful  ring,  unusual  in 
that  it  had  no  setting  of  jade.  Warrington  of- 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

fered  three  sovereigns  for  it.  The  Chinaman 
smiled  and  put  the  ring  away.  Warrington 
laughed  and  laid  down  five  pieces  of  gold.  The 
Chinaman  swept  them  up  in  his  lean  dry  hands. 
And  Warrington  departed,  wondering  if  she  would 
accept  such  a  token. 

By  four  o'clock  he  arrived  at  the  Chinese  tailors 
in  the  Suley  Pagoda  Road.  He  ordered  a  suit  of 
pongee,  to  be  done  at  noon  the  following  day.  He 
added  to  this  orders  for  four  other  suits,  to  be 
finished  within  a  week.  Then  he  went  to  the  shoe 
maker,  to  the  hatter,  to  the  haberdasher.  There 
was  even  a  light  Malacca  walking-stick  among  his 
purchases.  A  long  time  had  passed  since  he  had 
carried  a  cane.  There  used  to  be,  once  upon  a 
time,  a  dapper  light  bamboo  which  was  known  up 
and  down  Broadway,  in  the  restaurants,  the  more 
or  less  famous  bars,  and  in  the  lounging-rooms  of 
a  popular  club.  All  this  business  because  he 
wanted  her  to  realize  what  he  had  been  and  yet 
could  be.  Thus,  vanity  sometimes  works  out  a 
man's  salvation.  And  it  marked  the  end  of  War- 
rington's  recidivation. 

When  he  reached  his  lodging-house  he  sought 
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BACK  TO  LIFE 

the  Burmese  landlady.  She  greeted  him  with  a 
smile  and  a  stiff  little  shake  of  the  hand.  He  owed 
her  money,  but  that  was  nothing.  Had  he  not  sent 
her  drunken  European  sailor-man  husband  about 
his  business?  Had  he  not  freed  her  from  a 
tyranny  of  fists  and  curses?  It  had  not  affected 
her  in  the  least  to  learn  that  her  sailor-man  had 
been  negligently  married  all  the  way  from  Yoko 
hama  to  Colombo.  She  was  free  of  him. 

Warrington  spread  out  a  five-pound  note  and 
laid  ten  sovereigns  upon  it.  "  There  we  are,"  he 
said  genially;  "  all  paid  up  to  date." 

"  This  ?  "  touching  the  note. 

"  A  gift  for  all  your  patience  and  kindness." 

"You  go  'way?"  the  smile  leaving  her  pretty 
moon- face. 

"  Yes." 

"  You  like  ?  "  with  a  gesture  which  indicated  the 
parlor  and  its  contents.  "Be  boss?  Half  an' 
half?" 

He  shook  his  head  soberly.  She  picked  up  the 
money  and  jingled  it  in  her  hand. 

"Goo'-by!"  softly. 

"  Oh,  I'm  not  going  until  next  Thursday." 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

The  smile  returned  to  her  face,  and  her  body  bent 
in  a  kind  of  kotow.  He  was  so  big,  and  his 
beard  glistened  like  the  gold-leaf  on  the  Shwe 
Dagon  Pagoda.  She  understood.  The  white  to 
the  white  and  the  brown  to  the  brown;  it  was  the 
Law. 

Warrington  went  up  to  his  room.  He  was  wel 
comed  by  a  screech  from  the  parrot  and  a  dignified 
salaam  from  James,  who  was  trimming  the  wick  of 
the  oil-lamp.  For  the  last  year  and  a  half  this 
room  had  served  as  headquarters.  Many  a  finan 
cial  puzzle  had  been  pieced  together  within  these 
dull  drab  walls;  many  a  dream  had  gone  up  to  the 
ceiling,  only  to  sink  and  dissipate  like  smoke. 
There  were  no  pictures  on  the  walls,  no  photo 
graphs.  In  one  corner,  on  the  floor,  was  a  stack 
of  dilapidated  books.  These  were  mostly  old 
novels  and  tomes  dealing  with  geological  and  math 
ematical  matters;  laughter  and  tears  and  adven 
ture,  sandwiched  in  between  the  dry  positiveness  of 
straight  lines  and  squares  and  circles  and  numerals 
without  end;  D'Artagnan  hobnobbing  with  Euclid! 
Warrington  was  an  educated  man,  but  he  was  in 
no  sense  a  scholar.  In  his  hours  of  leisure  he  did 

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V 

BACK  TO  LIFE 

not  find  solace  in  the  classics.  He  craved  for  a 
good  blood-red  tale,  with  lots  of  fighting  and  love- 
making  and  pleasant  endings. 

James  applied  a  match  to  the  wick,  and  the  gen 
eral  poverty  of  the  room  was  instantly  made  mani 
fest. 

"  Well,  old  sober-top,  suppose  we  square  up  and 
part  like  good  friends?" 

"  I  am  always  the  Sahib's  good  friend." 

"  Right  as  rain ! "  Warrington  emptied  his 
pockets  upon  the  table;  silver  and  gold  and  paper. 
"Eh?  That's  the  stuff.  Without  it  the  world's 
not  worth  a  tinker's  dam.  Count  out  seventy 
pounds,  James." 

"  Sixty-seven." 

"  Seventy  or  nothing,"  declared  Warrington,  put 
ting  his  hands  down  upon  the  glittering  metals. 
Rupees  and  sovereigns  never  lose  their  luster  in  the 
East. 

Calmly,  then,  James  took  sovereign  after 
sovereign  until  he  had  withdrawn  the  required  sum. 
"  Gold  is  heavy,  Sahib,"  he  commented. 

"  Hang  it,  your  hands  are  steadier  than  mine !  " 

"  You  go  back  home  ?  " 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

"  Yes.  Something  like  home.  I  am  going  to 
Paris,  where  good  people  go  when  they  die.  I  am 
going  to  drink  vintage  wines,  eat  truffles  and  mush 
rooms  and  caviar,  and  kiss  the  pretty  girls  in 
Maxim's.  I've  been  in  prison  for  ten  years.  I  am 
free,  free ! "  Warrington  flung  out  his  arms. 
"  Good-by,  jungles,  deserts,  hell-heat  and  thirsty 
winds!  Good-by,  crusts  and  rags  and  hunger!  I 
am  going  to  live." 

"  The  Sahib  has  fever,"  observed  the  unimagina 
tive  Eurasian. 

"  That's  the  word ;  fever.  I  am  burning  up. 
Here;  go  to  the  boat  and  give  the  purser  these  six 
sovereigns.  Here  are  three  more.  Go  to  the 
Strand  and  get  a  bottle  of  champagne,  and  bring 
some  ice.  Buy  a  box  of  the  best  cigars,  and  hurry 
back.  Then  put  this  junk  in  the  trunk.  And 
damn  the  smell  of  kerosene!  " 

James  raised  his  hand  warningly.  From  the  ad 
joining  room  came  the  sound  of  a  quarrel. 

"Rupees  one  hundred  and  forty,  and  I  want  it 
now,  you  sneak !  " 

"  But  I  told  you  I  couldn't  square  up  until  the 
first  of  the  month." 

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BACK  TO  LIFE 

"  You  had  no  business  to  play  poker,  then,  if  you 
knew  you  couldn't  settle." 

"  Who  asked  me  to  play  ?  "  shrilled  the  other. 
"  You  did.  Well,  I  haven't  got  the  money." 

"  You  miserable  little  welcher !  That  ring  is 
worth  a  hundred  and  forty." 

"  You'll  never  get  your  dirty  fingers  inside  of 
that." 

"Oh,  I  shan't,  eh?" 

Warrington  heard  a  scuffling,  which  was  presently 
followed  by  a  low  choking  sob.  He  did  not  know 
who  occupied  the  adjoining  room.  He  had  been 
away  for  weeks,  and  there  had  been  no  permanent 
boarders  before  that  time.  He  rushed  fearlessly 
into  the  other  room.  Pinned  to  the  wall  was  a 
young  man  with  a  weak  pale  face.  The  other  man 
presented  nothing  more  than  the  back  of  his  broad 
muscular  shoulders.  The  disparity  in  weight  and 
height  was  sufficient  to  rouse  Warrington's  sense  of 
fair  play.  Besides,  he  was  in  a  rough  mood  him 
self. 

"  Here,  that'll  do,"  he  cried,  seizing  the  heavier 
man  by  the  collar.  "  It  isn't  worth  while  to  kill  a 
man  for  a  handful  of  rupees.  Let  go,  you  fool !  " 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

He  used  his  strength.  The  man  and  his  victim 
swung  in  a  half -circle  and  crashed  to  the  floor. 

With  a  snarl  and  an  oath,  the  gambler  sprung  to 
his  feet  and  started  toward  Warrington.  He 
stopped  short. 

"  Good  God !  "  he  murmured ;  and  retreated  un 
til  he  touched  the  foot-board  of  the  bed. 


((y^RAIG?"  Warrington  whispered  the 
V_>l  word,  as  if  he  feared  the  world  might  hear 
the  deadly  menace  in  his  voice.  For  murder  leaped 
up  in  his1  heart  as  flame  leaps  up  in  pine-kindling. 

The  weak  young  man  got  to  his  knees,  then  to  his 
feet.  He  steadied  himself  by  clutching  the  back  of 
a  chair.  With  one  hand  he  felt  of  his  throat  ten 
derly. 

"  He  tried  to  kill  me,  the  blackguard ! "  he 
croaked. 

"  Craig,  it  'is  you !  For  ten  years  I've  never 
thought  of  you  without  murder  in  my  heart. 
Newell  Craig,  and  here,  right  where  I  can  put  my 
hands  upon  you!  Oh,  this  old  world  is  small." 
Warrington  laughed.  It  was  a  high  thin  sound. 

The  young  man  looked  from  his  enemy  to  his  de 
liverer,  and  back  again.  What  new  row  was  this? 
Never  before  had  he  seen  the  blackguard  with  that 

81 


PARROT  &  CO. 

look  in  his  dark,  handsome,  predatory  face.  It  typi 
fied  fear.  And  who  was  this  big  blond  chap  whose 
ringers  were  working  so  convulsively? 

"  Craig,"  said  the  young  man,  "  you  get  out  of 
here,  and  if  you  ever  come  bothering  me,  I'll  shoot 
you.  Hear  me?" 

This  direful  threat  did  not  seem  to  stir  the  sense 
of  hearing  in  either  of  the  two  men.  The  one  faced 
the  other  as  a  lion  might  have  faced  a  jackal,  won 
dering  if  it  would  be  worth  while  to  waste  a  cuff 
on  so  sorry  a  beast.  Suddenly  the  blond  man 
caught  the  door  and  swung  it  wide. 

"  Craig,  a  week  ago  I'd  have  throttled  you  with 
out  the  least  compunction.  To-day  I  can't  touch 
you.  But  get  out  of  here  as  fast  as  you  can.  You 
might  have  gone  feet  foremost.  Go !  Out  of  Ran 
goon,  too.  I  may  change  my  mind." 

The  man  called  Craig  walked  out,  squaring  his 
shoulders  with  a  touch  of  bravado  that  did  not 
impress  even  the  plucked  pigeon.  Warrington 
stood  listening  until  he  heard  the  hall-door  close 
sharply. 

"  Thanks,"  said  the  bewildered  youth. 

Warrington  whirled  upon  him  savagely. 
82 


IN  THE  NEXT  ROOM 

"  Thanks  ?  Don't  thank  me,  you  weak-kneed 
fool!" 

"  Oh,  I  say,  now !  "  the  other  protested. 

"  Be  silent !  If  you  owe  that  scoundrel  anything, 
refuse  to  pay  it.  He  never  won  a  penny  in  his  life 
without  cheating.  Keep  out  of  his  way;  keep  out 
of  the  way  of  all  men  who  prefer  to  deal  only  two 
hands."  And  with  this  advice  Warrington  stepped 
out  into  the  hallway  and  shut  the  door  rudely. 

The  youth  walked  over  to  the  mirror  and  straight 
ened  his  collar  and  tie.  "  Rum  go,  that.  Narrow 
squeak.  Surly  beggar,  even  if  he  did  do  me  a  good 
turn.  I  shan't  have  to  pay  that  rotter,  Craig,  now. 
That's  something." 

"  Pay  the  purser  and  get  a  box  of  cigars,"  War 
rington  directed  James.  "  Never  mind  about  the 
wine.  I  shan't  want  it  now." 

James  went  out  upon  the  errands  immediately. 

Warrington  dropped  down  in  the  creaky  rocking- 
chair,  the  only  one  in  the  boarding-house.  He 
stared  at  the  worn  and  faded  carpet.  How  dingy 
everything  looked !  What  a  sordid  rut  he  had  been 
content  to  lie  in !  Chance :  to  throw  this  man  across 
his  path  when  he  had  almost  forgotten  him,  forgot- 

83 


PARROT  &  CO. 

ten  that  he  had  sworn  to  break  the  man's  neck  over 
his  knees!  In  the  very  next  room!  And  he  had 
permitted  him  to  go  unharmed  simply  because  his 
mind  was  full  of  a  girl  he  would  never  see  again 
after  to-morrow.  What  was  the  rascal  doing  over 
here?  What  had  caused  him  to  forsake  the  easy 
pluckings  of  Broadway  in  exchange  for  a  dog's  life 
on  packet-boats,  in  squalid  boarding-houses  like  this 
one,  and  in  dismal  billiard-halls  ?  Wire-tapper,  rac 
ing-tout,  stool-pigeon,  a  cheater  at  cards,  black 
mailer  and  trafficker  in  baser  things;  in  the  next 
room,  and  he  had  let  him  go  unharmed.  Vermin. 
Pah !  He  was  glad.  The  very  touch  of  the  man's 
collar  had  left  a  sense  of  defilement  upon  his  hands. 
Ten  years  ago  and  thirteen  thousand  miles  away. 
In  the  next  room.  He  laughed  unpleasantly. 
Chivalric  fool,  silly  Don  Quixote,  sentimental 
dreamer,  to  have  made  a  hash  of  his  life  in  this  man 
ner! 

He  leaned  toward  the  window-sill  and  opened  the 
cage.     Rajah  walked  out,  muttering. 

When  it  was  possible,  Elsa  preferred  to  walk. 
She  was  young  and  strong  and  active ;  and  she  went 

84 


IN  THE  NEXT  ROOM 

along  with  a  swinging  stride  that  made  obvious  a 
serene  confidence  in  her  ability  to  take  care  of  her 
self.  She  was,  in  many  respects,  a  remarkable 
young  woman.  She  had  been  pampered,  she  had 
been  given  her  head;  and  still  she  was  unspoiled. 
What  the  unknowing  called  wil fulness  was  simply 
natural  independence,  which  she  asserted  whenever 
occasion  demanded  it. 

Tongas  cut  into  her  nerves,  the  stuffy  gharry  made 
her  head  ache,  and  the  springless  phaetons  which 
abound  in  the  East  she  avoided  as  the  plague.  Ele 
phants  and  camels  and  rickshaws  were  her  delight; 
but  here  in  Rangoon  none  of  these  was  available. 
There  were  no  camels;  the  government  elephants 
had  steady  employment  out  at  MacGregor's  timber- 
yards  and  could  not  get  leave  of  absence;  while 
rickshaws  were  out  of  fashion,  as  only  natives  and 
Chinamen  rode  in  them.  So  Elsa  walked. 

She  loved  to  prowl  through  the  strange  streets 
and  alleys  and  stranger  shops ;  it  was  a  joy  to  ramble 
about,  minus  the  irritating  importunities  of  guide 
or  attendant.  It  was  great  fun,  but  it  was  not  al 
ways  wise.  There  were  some  situations  which  only 
men  could  successfully  handle.  Elsa  would  never 

85 


PARROT  &  CO. 

confess  that  there  had  been  instances  when  she  had 
been  confronted  by  such  situations.  She  could, 
however,  truthfully  say  that  these  awkward  mo 
ments  had  always  been  without  endings,  as,  being 
an  excellent  runner,  she  had,  upon  these  occasions, 
blithely  taken  to  her  heels. 

In  her  cool  white  drill,  her  wide  white  pith-helmet, 
she  presented  a  charming  picture.  The  exercise  had 
given  her  cheeks  a  bit  of  color,  and  her  eyes  sparkled 
and  flashed  like  raindrops.  This  morning  she  had 
taken  Martha  along  merely  to  still  her  protests. 

"  It's  all  right  so  long  as  we  keep  to  the  main 
streets,"  said  the  harried  Martha ;  "  but  I  do  not  like 
the  idea  of  roaming  about  in  the  native  quarters. 
This  is  not  like  Europe.  The  hotel-manager  said 
we  ought  to  have  a  man." 

"  He  is  looking  out  for  his  commission.  Heav 
ens!  what  is  the  matter  with  everybody?  One 
would  think,  the  way  people  put  themselves  out  to 
warn  you,  that  murder  and  robbery  were  daily  oc 
currences  in  Asia.  I've  been  here  four  months,  and 
the  only  disagreeable  moment  I  have  known  was 
caused  by  a  white  man." 

86 


IN  THE  NEXT  ROOM 

"  Because  we  have  been  lucky  so  far,  it's  no  sign 
that  we  shall  continue  so." 

"  Raven !  "  laughed  the  girl. 

Martha  shut  her  lips  grimly.  Her  worry  was  not 
confined  to  this  particular  phase  of  Elsa's  imperious 
moods ;  it  was  general.  There  was  that  blond  man 
with  the  parrot.  Martha  was  beginning  to  see  him 
in  her  dreams,  which  she  considered  as  a  presage  of 
evil.  There  was  also  the  astonishing  lack  of  inter 
est  in  the  man  who  was  waiting  at  home.  Elsa 
rarely  spoke  of  him.  Nobody  could  tell  Martha 
that  chance  had  thrown  the  blond  stranger  into  their 
society.  Somewhere  it  had  been  written.  (As,  in 
deed,  it  had!)  How  to  keep  Elsa  apart  from  him 
was  now  her  vital  concern.  She  would  never  feel 
at  ease  until  they  were  out  of  Yokohama,  homeward- 
bound. 

"  I  feel  like  a  child  this  morning,"  said  Elsa.  "  I 
want  to  run  and  play  and  shout." 

"  All  the  more  reason  why  you  should  have  a 
guardian.  .  .  .  Look,  Elsa ! "  Martha  caught  the 
girl  by  the  arm.  "  There's  that  man  we  left  at  Man- 
dalay." 

87 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"Where?" 

"  Coming  toward  us.  Shall  we  go  into  this 
shop?" 

"  No,  thank  you !  There  is  no  reason  why  I 
should  hide  in  a  butcher-shop,  simply  to  avoid  meet 
ing  the  man.  We'll  walk  straight  past  him.  If  he 
speaks,  we'll  ignore  him." 

"  I  wish  we  were  in  a  civilized  country." 

"  This  man  is  supposed  to  be  civilized.  Don't  let 
him  catch  your  eye.  Go  on;  don't  lag." 

Craig  stepped  in  front  of  them,  smiling  as  he 
raised  his  helmet.  "  This  is  an  unexpected  pleas 
ure." 

Elsa,  looking  coldly  beyond  him,  attempted  to 
pass. 

"  Surely  you  remember  me  ?  " 

"  I  remember  an  insolent  cad,"  replied  Elsa,  her 
eyes  beginning  to  burn  dangerously.  "  Will  you 
stand  aside  ?  " 

He  threw  a  swift  glance  about.  He  saw  with  sat 
isfaction  that  none  but  natives  was  in  evidence. 

Elsa's  glance  roved,  too,  with  a  little  chill  of  de 
spair.  In  stories  Warrington  would  have  appeared 
about  this  time  and  soundly  trounced  this  impudent 

88 


IN  THE  NEXT  ROOM 

scoundrel.  She  realized  that  she  must  settle  this 
affair  alone.  She  was  not  a  soldier's  daughter  for 
nothing. 

"Stand  aside!" 

"  Hoity-toity !  "  he  laughed.  He  had  been  drink 
ing  liberally  and  was  a  shade  reckless.  "  Why  not 
be  a  good  fellow?  Over  here  nobody  minds.  I 
know  a  neat  little  restaurant.  Bring  the  old  lady 
along,"  with  a  genial  nod  toward  the  quaking  Mar 
tha. 

Resolutely  Elsa's  hand  went  up  to  her  helmet,  and 
with  a  flourish  drew  out  one  of  the  long  steel  pins. 

"  Oh,  Elsa!  "  warned  Martha. 

"  Be  still !  This  fellow  needs  a  lesson.  Once 
more,  Mr.  Craig,  will  you  stand  aside?  " 

Had  he  been  sober  he  would  have  seen  the  real 
danger  in  the  young  woman's  eyes. 

"  Cruel !  "  he  said.  "  At  least,  one  kiss,"  putting 
out  his  arms. 

Elsa,  merciless  in  her  fury,  plunged  the  pin  into 
his  wrist.  It  stung  like  a  hornet ;  and  with  a  gasp  of 
pain,  Craig  leaped  back  out  of  range,  sobered. 

"  Why,  you  she-cat !  " 

"  I  warned  you,"  she  replied,  her  voice  steady  but 
89 


PARROT  &  CO. 

low.  "  The  second  stab  will  be  serious.  Stand 
aside." 

He  stepped  into  the  gutter,  biting  his  lips  and 
straining  his  uninjured  hand  over  the  hurting  throb 
in  his  wrist.  The  hat-pin  as  a  weapon  of  defense 
he  had  hitherto  accepted  as  reporters'  yarns.  He 
was  now  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  truth.  He 
had  had  wide  experience  with  women.  His  advan 
tage  had  always  been  in  the  fact  that  the  general 
run  of  them  will  submit  to  insult  rather  than  create 
a  scene.  This  dark-eyed  Judith  was  distinctly  an 
exception  to  the  rule.  Gad!  She  might  have 
missed  his  wrist  and  jabbed  him  in  the  throat.  He 
swore,  and  walked  off  down  the  street. 

Elsa  set  a  pace  which  Martha,  with  her  wabbling 
knees,  found  difficult  to  maintain. 

"You  might  have  killed  him!  "  she  cried  breath 
lessly. 

"  You  can't  kill  that  kind  of  a  snake  with  a  hat 
pin;  you  have  to  stamp  on  its  head.  But  I  rather 
believe  it  will  be  some  time  before  Mr.  Craig  will 
again  make  the  mistake  of  insulting  a  woman  be 
cause  she  appears  to  be  defenseless."  Elsa's  chin 

90 


IN  THE  NEXT  ROOM 

was  in  the  air.  The  choking  sensation  in  her  throat 
began  to  subside.  "  The  deadly  hat-pin ;  can't  you 
see  the  story  in  the  newspapers?  Well,  I  for  one 
am  not  afraid  to  use  it.  You  know  and  the  purser 
knows  what  happened  on  the  boat  to  Mandalay. 
He  was  plausible  and  affable  and  good-looking,  and 
the  mistake  was  mine.  I  seldom  make  them.  I 
kept  quiet  because  the  boat  was  full-up,  and  as  a  rule 
I  hate  scenes.  Men  like  that  know  it.  If  I  had 
complained,  he  would  have  denied  his  actions,  in 
ferred  that  I  was  evil-minded.  He  would  have  been 
shocked  at  my  misinterpreting  him.  Heavens,  I 
know  the  breed !  Now,  not  a  single  word  of  this  to 
any  one.  Mr.  Craig,  I  fancy,  will  be  the  last  per 
son  to  speak  of  it." 

"  You  had  better  put  the  pin  back  into  your  hat," 
suggested  Martha. 

"Pah!  I  had  forgotten  it."  Elsa  flung  the 
weapon  far  into  the  street. 

Once  they  turned  into  Merchant  Street,  both  felt 
the  tension  relax.  Martha  would  have  liked  to  sit 
down,  even  on  the  curb. 

"  I  despise  men,"  she  volunteered. 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  I  am  beginning  to  believe  that  few  of  them  are 
worth  a  thought.  Those  who  aren't  fools  are 
knaves." 

"  Are  you  sure  of  your  judgment  in  regard  to  this 
man  Warrington  ?  How  can  you  tell  that  he  is  any 
different  from  that  man  Craig?" 

"  He  is  different,  that  is  all.  This  afternoon  he 
will  come  to  tea.  I  shall  want  you  to  be  with  us. 
Remember,  not  a  word  of  this  disgraceful  affair." 

"  Ah,  Elsa,  I  am  afraid ;  I  am  more  afraid  of 
Warrington  than  of  a  man  of  Craig's  type." 

"And  why?" 

"  It  sounds  foolish,  but  I  can't  explain.  I  am 
just  afraid  of  him." 

"  Bother !     You  talk  like  an  old  maid." 

"  And  I  am  one,  by  preference." 

"  We  are  always  quarreling,  Martha ;  and  it 
doesn't  do  either  of  us  any  good.  When  you  op 
pose  me,  I  find  that  that  is  the  very  thing  I  want 
to  do.  You  haven't  any  diplomacy." 

"  I  would  gladly  cultivate  it  if  I  thought  it  would 
prove  effectual,"  was  the  retort. 

"  Try  it,"  advised  Elsa  dryly. 

Warrington's     appearance    that    afternoon    as- 
92 


IN  THE  NEXT  ROOM 

tonished  Elsa.  She  had  naturally  expected  some 
change,  but  scarcely  such  elegance.  He  was,  with 
out  question,  one  of  the  handsomest  men  she  had 
ever  met.  He  was  handsomer  than  Arthur  because 
he  was  more  manly  in  type.  Arthur  himself,  an 
exquisite  in  the  matter  of  clothes,  could  not  have 
improved  upon  this  man's  taste  or  selection.  What 
a  mystery  he  was !  She  greeted  him  cordially,  with 
out  restraint;  but  for  all  that,  a  little  shiver  stirred 
the  tendrils  of  hair  at  the  nape  of  her  neck. 

"  The  most  famous  man  in  Rangoon  to-day,"  she 
said,  smiling. 

"  So  you  have  read  that  tommy-rot  in  the  news 
paper  ?  " 

They  sat  on  her  private  balcony,  under  an  awning. 
Rain  was  threatening.  Martha  laid  aside  her  knit 
ting  and  did  her  utmost  to  give  her  smile  of  welcome 
an  air  of  graciousness. 

"  I  shouldn't  call  it  tommy-rot,"  Elsa  declared. 
"  It  was  not  chance.  It  was  pluck  and  foresight. 
Men  who  possess  those  two  attributes  get  about 
everything  worth  having." 

"  There  are  exceptions,"  studying  the  ferrule  of 
his  cane. 

93 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  Is  there  really  anything  you  want  now  and  can't 
have?" 

Martha  looked  at  her  charge  in  dread  and  won 
der. 

"  There  is  the  moon,"  he  answered.  "  I  have  al 
ways  wanted  that.  But  there  it  hangs,  just  as  far 
out  of  reach  as  ever." 

"Two  lumps?" 

"  None.     My  sugar-tooth  is  gone." 

Elsa  had  heard  that  hard  drinkers  disliked  sweets. 
Had  this  been  the  Gordian  knot  he  had  cut  ? 

"  Perhaps,  after  all,"  she  said,  "  you  would  pre 
fer  a  peg,  as  you  call  it  over  here." 

"  No,  thanks.  I  was  never  fond  of  whisky. 
Sometimes,  when  I  am  dead  tired,  and  have  to  go 
on  working,  I  take  a  little." 

So  that  wasn't  it.  Elsa's  curiosity  to-day  was 
keenly  alive.  She  wanted  to  ask  a  thousand  ques 
tions  ;  but  the  ease  with  which  the  man  wore  his  new 
clothes,  used  his  voice  and  eyes  and  hands,  con 
vinced  her  more  than  ever  that  the  subtlest  questions 
she  might  devise  would  not  stir  him  into  any  con- 
'fession.  That  he  had  once  been  a  gentleman  of  her 
own  class,  and  more,  something  of  an  exquisite, 

94 


IN  THE  NEXT  ROOM 

there  remained  no  doubt  in  her  mind.  What  had 
he  done?  What  in  the  world  had  he  done? 

On  his  part  he  regretted  the  presence  of  Martha; 
for,  so  strongly  had  this  girl  worked  upon  his  im 
agination  that  he  had  called  with  the  deliberate  in 
tention  of  telling  her  everything.  But  he  could  not 
open  the  gates  of  his  heart  before  a  third  person,  one 
he  intuitively  knew  was  antagonistic. 

Conversation  went  afield:  pictures  and  music 
and  the  polished  capitals  of  the  world;  the  latest 
books  and  plays.  The  information  in  regard  to 
these  Elsa  supplied  him.  They  discussed  also  the 
problems  of  the  day  as  frankly  as  if  they  had  been 
in  an  Occidental  drawing-room.  Martha's  tea  was 
bitter.  She  liked  Arthur,  who  was  always  charm 
ing,  who  never  surprised  or  astonished  anybody,  or 
shocked  them  with  unexpected  phases  of  character; 
and  each  time  she  looked  at  Warrington,  Arthur 
seemed  to  recede.  And  when  the  time  came  for 
the  guest  to  take  his  leave,  Martha  regretted  to  find 
that  the  major  part  of  her  antagonism  was  gone. 

"  I  wish  to  thank  you,  Miss  Chetwood,  for  your 
kindness  to  a  very  lonely  man.  It  isn't  probable 
that  I  shall  see  you  again.  I  sail  next  Thursday  for 

95 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Singapore."  He  reached  into  a  pocket.  "  I  won 
der  if  you  would  consider  it  an  impertinence  if  I  of 
fered  you  this  old  trinket?  "  He  held  out  the  man 
darin's  ring. 

"  What  a  beauty !  "  she  exclaimed.  "Of  course 
I'll  accept  it.  It  is  very  kind  of  you.  I  am  inor 
dinately  fond  of  such  things.  Thank  you.  How 
easily  it  slips  over  my  finger !  " 

"  Chinamen  have  very  slender  fingers,"  he  ex 
plained.  "  Good-by.  Those  characters  say  *  Good 
luck  and  prosperity.' ' 

No  expressed  desire  of  wishing  to  meet  her  again ; 
just  an  ordinary  every-day  farewell;  and  she  liked 
him  all  the  better  for  his  apparent  lack  of  sentiment. 

"  Good-by,"  she  said.  She  winced,  for  his  hand 
was  rough-palmed  and  strong. 

A  little  later  she  saw  him  pass  down  the  street. 
He  never  turned  and  looked  back. 

"  And  why,"  asked  Martha,  "  did  you  not  tell  the 
man  that  we  sail  on  the  same  ship  ?  " 

"  You're  a  simpleton,  Martha."  Elsa  turned  the 
ring  round  and  round  on  her  ringer.  "  If  I  had 
told  him,  he  would  have  canceled  his  sailing  and 
taken  another  boat." 


VII 

CONFIDENCES 

THAT  night  Martha  wrote  a  letter.  During 
the  writing  of  it  she  jumped  at  every  sound : 
a  footstep  in  the  hall,  the  shutting  of  a  door,  a  voice 
calling  in  the  street.  And  yet,  Martha  was  guilty 
of  performing  only  what  she  considered  to  be  her 
bounden  duty.  It  is  the  prerogative  of  fate  to  tan 
gle  or  untangle  the  skein  of  human  lives;  but  still, 
there  are  those  who  elect  themselves  to  break  the 
news  gently,  to  lessen  the  shock  of  the  blow  which 
fate  is  about  to  deliver. 

"My  dear  Mr.  Arthur: 

...  I  do  not  know  what  to  make  of  it.  His  likeness 
to  you  is  the  most  unheard  of  thing.  He  is  a  little  bigger 
and  broader  and  he  wears  his  beard  longer.  That's  all  the 
difference.  When  he  came  on  the  boat  that  night,  it  was 
like  a  hand  clutching  at  my  throat.  And  you  kncrw  how 
romantic  Elsa  is,  for  all  that  she  believes  she  is  prosaic. 
I  ant  certain  that  she  sees  you  in  this  stranger  who  calls 
himself  Warrington.  If  only  you  had  had  the  foresight  to 
follow  us,  a  sailing  or  two  later !  And  now  they'll  be  to 
gether  for  four  or  five  days,  down  to  Singapore.  I  don't 

97 


PARROT  &  CO. 

like  it.  There's  something  uncanny  in  the  thing.  What  if 
she  did  forbid  you  to  follow?  There  are  some  promises 
women  like  men  to  break.  You  should  have  followed. 

Neither  of  us  has  the  slightest  idea  what  the  man  has 
done  to  exile  himself  in  this  horrible  land  for  ten  years. 
He  still  behaves  like  a  gentleman,  and  he  must  have  been 
one  in  the  past.  But  he  has  never  yet  spoken  of  his  home, 
of  his  past,  of  his  people.  We  don't  even  know  that  War- 
rington  is  his  name.  And  you  know  that's  a  sign  that 
something  is  wrong.  I  wonder  if  you  have  any  relatives 
by  the  name  of  Warrington?  I  begin  to  see  that  man's  face 
in  my  dreams. 

I  am  worried.  For  Elsa  is  a  puzzle.  She  has  always 
been  one  to  me.  I  have  been  with  her  since  her  babyhood, 
and  yet  I  know  as  little  of  what  goes  on  in  her  mind  as  a 
stranger  would.  Her  father,  you  know,  was  a  soldier,  of 
fierce  loves  and  hates;  her  mother  was  a  handsome  statue. 
Elsa  has  her  father's  scorn  for  convention  and  his  inde 
pendence,  clothed  in  her  mother's  impenetrable  mask. 
Don't  mistake  me.  Elsa  is  the  most  adorable  creature  to 
me,  and  I  worship  her;  but  I  worry  about  her.  I  believe 
that  it  would  be  wise  on  your  part  to  meet  us  in  San  Fran 
cisco.  Give  my  love  and  respect  to  your  dear  beautiful 
mother.  And  marry  Elsa  as  fast  as  ever  you  can." 

There  followed  some  rambling  comments  on  the 
weather,  the  rains  and  the  dust,  the  execrable  food 
and  the  lack  of  drinking-water.  The  man  who 
eventually  received  this  letter  never  reached  that 
part  of  it. 

The  day  of  sailing  was  brilliant  and  warm.  Elsa 
sat  in  a  chair  on  the  deck  of  the  tender,  watching  the 

98 


CONFIDENCES 

passengers  as  they  came  aboard.  A  large  tourist 
party  bustled  about,  rummaged  among  the  heaps  of 
luggage,  and  shouted  questions  at  their  unhappy  con 
ductor.  They  wanted  to  know  where  their  state 
rooms  were,  grumbled  about  the  size  of  the  boat, 
prophesied  typhoons  and  wrecks,  got  in  everybody's 
way,  and  ordered  other  people's  servants  about. 
Never  before  had  Elsa  realized  the  difficulties  that 
beset  the  path  of  the  personal  conductor.  What 
ever  his  salary  was,  he  was  entitled  to  it.  It  was 
all  he  got.  No  one  thought  to  offer  him  a  little 
kindness.  He  was  a  human  guide-book  which  his 
fares  opened  and  shut  how  and  when  they  pleased. 
She  saw  Hooghly  standing  in  the  bow.  A 
steamer-trunk,  a  kit-bag,  a  bedding-bag,  and  the  in 
evitable  parrot-cage,  reposed  at  his  feet.  He  was 
watching  without  interest  or  excitement  the  stream 
passing  up  and  down  the  gangplank.  If  his  mas 
ter  came,  very  well;  if  he  did  not,  he  would  get  off 
with  the  luggage.  How  she  would  have  liked  to 
question  him  regarding  his  master!  Elsa  began  to 
offer  excuses  for  her  interest  in  Warrington.  He 
was  the  counterpart  of  Arthur  Ellison.  He  had 
made  his  fortune  against  odds.  He  was  a  mystery. 

99 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Why  shouldn't  he  interest  her?  Her  mind  was  not 
ice,  nor  was  her  heart  a  stone.  She  pitied  him, 
always  wondering  what  was  back  of  it  all.  She 
would  be  a  week  in  Singapore ;  after  that  their  paths 
would  widen  and  become  lost  in  the  future,  and 
she  would  forget  all  about  him,  save  in  a  shadowy 
way.  She  would  marry  Arthur  whether  she  loved 
him  or  not.  She  was  certain  that  he  loved  her.  He 
had  a  comfortable  income,  not  equal  to  hers,  but 
enough.  He  was,  besides,  her  own  sort;  and  there 
wasn't  any  mystery  about  him  at  all.  He  was  as 
clear  to  her  as  glass.  For  nearly  ten  years  she  had 
known  him,  since  his  and  his  mother's  arrival  in  the 
small  pretty  Kentuckian  town.  What  was  the  use 
of  hunting  a  fancy?  Yes,  she  would  marry  Ar 
thur.  She  was  almost  inclined  to  cable  him  to  meet 
her  in  San  Francisco. 

That  there  was  real  danger  in  her  interest  in  War- 
rington  did  not  occur  to  her.  The  fact  that  she  was 
now  willing  to  marry  Arthur,  without  analyzing  the 
causes  that  had  brought  her  to  this  decision,  should 
have  warned  her  that  she  was  dimly  afraid  of  the 
stranger.  Her  glance  fell  upon  the  mandarin's 
ring.  She  twirled  it  round  undecidedly.  Should 

TOO 


CONFIDENCES 

she  wear  it  or  put  it  away  ?  The  question  remained 
suspended.  She  saw  Craig  coming  aboard ;  and  she 
hid  her  face  behind  her  magazine.  Upon  second 
thought  she  let  the  magazine  fall.  She  was  quite 
confident  that  that  chapter  was  closed.  Craig  might 
be  a  scoundrel,  but  he  was  no  fool. 

A  sharp  blast  from  the  tender's  whistle  drew  her 
attention  to  the  gangplank.  The  last  man  to  come 
aboard  was  Warrington.  He  appeared  in  no  espe 
cial  hurry.  He  immediately  sought  James ;  and  they 
stood  together  chatting  until  the  tender  drew  up 
alongside  the  steamer  of  the  British-India  line. 
The  two  men  shook  hands  finally.  There  seemed 
to  be  some  argument,  in  which  Warrington  bore 
down  the  servant.  The  latter  added  a  friendly  tap 
on  the  Eurasian's  shoulder.  No  one  would  have 
suspected  that  the  white  man  and  his  dark  compan 
ion  had  been  "  shipmates,"  in  good  times  and  in 
bad,  for  nearly  a  decade.  Elsa,  watching  them 
from  her  secure  nook,  admired  the  lack  of  effusive 
ness.  The  dignity  of  the  parting  told  her  of  the 
depth  of  feeling. 

An  hour  later  they  were  heading  for  the  delta. 

Elsa  amused  herself  by  casting  bits  of  bread  to 
101 


PARROT  &  CO. 

the  gulls.  Always  they  caught  it  on  the  wing,  no 
matter  in  what  direction  she  threw  it.  Sometimes 
one  would  wing  up  to  her  very  hand  for  charity,  its 
coral  feet  stretched  out  to  meet  the  quick  back-play 
of  the  wings,  its  cry  shallow  and  plaintive  and  world- 
lonely. 

Suddenly  she  became  aware  of  a  presence  at  her 
side. 

A  voice  said :  "  It  was  not  quite  fair  of  you." 

"  What  wasn't?  "  without  turning  her  head.  She 
brushed  her  hands  free  of  the  crumbs. 

"  You  should  have  let  me  know  that  you  were 
going  to  sail  on  this  boat." 

"  You  would  have  run  away,  then." 

"Why?"  startled  at  her  insight. 

"  Because  you  are  a  little  afraid  of  me."  She 
faced  him,  without  a  smile  either  on  her  lips  or  in 
her  eyes.  "  Aren't  you  ?  " 

"  Yes.  I  am  afraid  of  all  things  I  do  not  quite 
understand." 

"  There  is  not  the  least  need  in  the  world,  Mr. 
Warrington.  I  am  quite  harmless.  My  claws  have 
been  clipped.  I  am  engaged  to  be  married,  and  am 
going  home  to  decide  the  day." 

1 02 


CONFIDENCES 

"  He's  a  lucky  man."  He  was  astonished  at  his 
calm,  for  the  blow  went  deep. 

"  Lucky  ?  That  is  in  the  future.  What  a  lonely 
thing  a  gull  is !  " 

"  What  a  lonely  thing  a  lonely  man  is !  "  he  added. 
Poor  fool !  To  have  dreamed  so  fair  a  dream  for 
a  single  moment !  He  tried  to  believe  that  he  was 
glad  that  she  had  told  him  about  the  other  man. 
The  least  this  information  could  do  would  be  to 
give  him  better  control  of  himself.  He  had  not 
been  out  in  the  open  long  enough  entirely  to  master 
his  feelings. 

"  Men  ought  not  to  be  lonely,"  she  said. 
"  There's  the  excitement  of  work,  of  mingling  with 
crowds,  of  going  when  and  where  one  pleases.  A 
woman  is  hemmed  in  by  a  thousand  petty  must- 
nots.  She  can't  go  out  after  dark;  she  can't  play 
whist  or  billiards,  or  sit  at  a  table  in  the  open  and 
drink  and  smoke  and  spin  yarns.  Woman's  lot  is 
wondering  and  waiting  at  home.  When  I  marry 
I  suppose  that  I  shall  learn  the  truth  of  that" 

Perhaps  it  was  because  he  had  been  away  from 
them  so  long  and  had  lost  track  of  the  moods  of  the 
feminine  mind;  but  surely  it  could  not  be  possible 

103 


PARROT  &  CO. 

that  there  was  real  happiness  in  this  young  woman's 
heart.  Its  evidence  was  lacking  in  her  voice,  in  her 
face,  in  her  gestures.  He  thought  it  over  with  a 
sigh.  It  was  probably  one  of  those  marriages  of 
convenience,  money  on  one  side  and  social  position 
on  the  other.  He  felt  sorry  for  the  girl,  sorry  for 
the  man ;  for  it  was  not  possible  that  a  girl  like  this 
one  would  go  through  life  without  experiencing  that 
flash  of  insanity  that  is  called  the  grand  passion. 

He  loved  her.  He  could  lean  against  the  rail,  his 
shoulder  lightly  touching  hers,  and  calmly  say  to 
himself  that  he  loved  her.  He  could  calmly  per 
mit  her  to  pass  out  of  his  life  as  a  cloud  passes  down 
the  sea-rim.  He  hadn't  enough,  but  this  evil  must 
befall  him.  Love!  He  spread  out  his  hands  un 
consciously. 

"  What  does  that  mean  ?  "  she  asked,  smiling  now. 
"  An  invocation?  " 

"  It's  a  sign  to  ward  off  evil,"  he  returned. 

"  From  whom  ?  " 

i 

"  From  me." 

"  Are  you  expecting  evil  ?  " 

"  I  am  always  preparing  myself  to  meet  it. 
There  is  one  thing  that  will  always  puzzle  me. 

104 


CONFIDENCES 

Why  should  you  have  asked  the  purser  to  pick  out 
such  a  tramp  as  I  was?  For  I  was  a  tramp." 

"  I  thought  I  explained  that." 

"  Not  clearly." 

"Well,  then,  I  shall  make  myself  clear.  The 
sight  of  you  upon  that  bank,  the  lights  in  your  face, 
struck  me  as  the  strangest  mystery  that  could  pos 
sibly  confront  me.  I  thought  you  were  a  ghost." 

"A  ghost?" 

"  Yes.  So  I  asked  the  purser  to  introduce  you 
to  prove  to  my  satisfaction  that  you  weren't  a  ghost. 
Line  for  line,  height  for  height,  color  for  color,  you 
are  the  exact  counterpart  of  the  man  I  am  going 
home  to  marry." 

She  saw  the  shiver  that  ran  over  him;  she  saw 
his  eyes  widen;  she  saw  his  hands  knot  in  pressure 
over  the  rail. 

"  The  man  you  are  going  to  marry !  "  he  whis 
pered. 

Abruptly,  without  explanation,  he  walked  away, 
his  shoulders  settled,  his  head  bent.  It  was  her  turn 
to  be  amazed.  What  could  this  attitude  mean? 

"  Mr.  Warrington !  "  she  called. 

But  he  disappeared  down  the  companionway. 


VIII 
A  WOMAN'S  REASON 

ELSA  stared  at  the  vacant  doorway.  She 
recognized  only  a  sense  of  bewilderment. 
This  was  not  one  of  those  childish  flashes  of  rude 
ness  that  had  amused,  annoyed  and  mystified  her. 
She  had  hurt  him.  And  how?  Her  first  explana 
tion  was  instantly  rejected  as  absurd,  impossible. 
They  had  known  each  other  less  than  a  fortnight. 
They  had  exchanged  opinions  upon  a  thousand 
topics,  but  sentiment  had  had  no  visible  part  in  these 
encounters.  They  had  been  together  three  days  on 
the  boat,  and  once  he  had  taken  tea  with  her  in 
Rangoon.  She  could  find  nothing  save  that  she  had 
been  kind  to  him  when  he  most  needed  kindness,  and 
that  she  had  not  been  stupidly  curious,  only  sym 
pathetically  so.  He  interested  her  and  held  that  in 
terest  because  he  was  a  type  unlike  anything  she  had 
met  outside  the  covers  of  a  book.  He  was  so  big 
and  strong,  and  yet  so  boyish.  He  had  given  her 

1 06 


A  WOMAN'S  REASON 

visions  of  the  character  which  had  carried  his  man 
hood  through  all  these  years  of  strife  and  bitterness 
and  temptation.  And  because  of  this  she  had 
shown  him  that  she  had  taken  it  for  granted  that 
whatever  he  had  done  in  the  past  had  not  put  him 
beyond  the  pale  of  her  friendship.  There  had  been 
no  degrading  entanglements,  and  women  forgive  or 
condone  all  other  transgressions. 

And  what  had  she  just  said  or  done  to  put  that 
look  of  dumb  agony  in  his  face?  She  swung  im 
patiently  from  the  rail.  She  hated  abstruse  prob 
lems,  and  not  the  least  of  these  was  that  which 
would  confront  her  when  she  returned  to  America. 
She  began  to  promenade  the  deck,  still  cluttered  with 
luggage  °ver  which  the  Lascar  stewards  were  moil 
ing.  Many  a  glance  followed  the  supple  pleasing 
figure  of  the  girl  as  she  passed  round  and  round  the 
deck.  Other  promenaders  stepped  aside  or  permit 
ted  her  to  pass  between.  The  resolute  uplift  of  the 
chin,  and  the  staring  dark  eyes  which  saw  but  inner 
visions,  impressed  them  with  the  fact  that  it  would 
be  wiser  to  step  aside  voluntarily.  There  were 
some,  however,  who  considered  that  they  had  as 
much  right  to  the  deck  as  she.  Before  them  she 

107 


PARROT  &  CO. 

would  stop  shortly,  and  as  a  current  breaks  and 
passes  each  side  of  an  immovable  object,  they,  too, 
gave  way. 

The  colonel  fussed  and  fumed,  and  his  three 
spinster  charges  drew  their  pale  lips  into  thinner 
paler  lines. 

"  These  Americans  are  impossible !  " 

"  And  it  is  scandalous  the  way  the  young  women 
travel  alone.  One  can  never  tell  what  they  are." 

"  Humph !  Brag  and  assertiveness.  And  there's 
that  ruffian  who  came  down  the  river.  What's  he 
doing  on  the  same  boat  ?  What  ?  " 

Elsa  became  aware  of  their  presence  at  the  fifth 
turn.  She  nodded  absently.  Being  immersed  in 
the  sea  of  conjecture  regarding  Warrington's  be 
havior,  the  colonel's  glare  did  not  rouse  in  her  the 
sense  of  impending  disaster. 

The  first  gong  for  dinner  boomed.  Elsa  missed 
the  clarion  notes  of  the  bugle,  so  familiar  to  her  ears 
on  the  Atlantic.  The  echoing  wail  of  the  gong 
spoke  in  the  voice  of  the  East,  of  its  dalliance,  its 
content  to  drift  in  a  sargassa  sea  of  entangling 
habits  and  desires,  of  its  fatalism  and  inertia.  It 
did  not  hearten  one  or  excite  hunger.  Elsa  would 

108 


A  WOMAN'S  REASON 

rather  have  lain  down  in  her  Canton  lounging-chair. 
The  gong  seemed  out  of  place  on  the  sea.  Vaguely 
it  reminded  her  of  the  railway  stations  at  home, 
where  they  beat  the  gong  to  entice  passengers  into 
the  evil-smelling  restaurants,  there  to  lose  their  pa 
tience  and  often  their  trains. 

The  dining-saloon  held  two  long  tables,  only  one 
of  which  was  in  commission,  the  starboard.  The 
saloon  was  unattractive,  for  staterooms  marshaled 
along  each  side  of  it;  and  one  caught  glimpses  of 
tumbled  luggage  and  tousled  berths.  A  punka 
stretched  from  one  end  of  the  table  to  the  other,  and 
swung  indolently  to  and  fro,  whining  mysteriously 
as  if  in  protest,  sometimes  subsiding  altogether  (as 
the  wearied  coolie  above  the  lights  fell  asleep)  and 
then  flapping  hysterically  (after  a  shout  of  warning 
from  the  captain)  and  setting  the  women's  hair 
awry. 

Elsa  and  Martha  were  seated  somewhere  between 
the  head  and  the  foot  of  the  table.  The  personally- 
conducted  surrounded  them,  and  gabbled  incessantly 
during  the  meal  of  what  they  had  seen,  of  what  they 
were  going  to  see,  and  of  what  they  had  missed  by 
not  going  with  the  other  agency's  party.  Elsa's 

109 


PARROT  &  CO. 

sympathy  went  out  to  the  tired  and  faded  con 
ductor. 

There  was  but  one  vacant  chair;  and  as  she  saw 
Warrington  nowhere,  Elsa  assumed  that  this  must 
be  his  reservation.  She  was  rather  glad  that  he 
would  be  beyond  conversational  radius.  She  liked 
to  talk  to  the  strange  and  lonely  man,  but  she  pre 
ferred  to  be  alone  with  him  when  she  did  so. 
Neither  of  them  had  yet  descended  to  the  level  of 
trifles ;  and  Elsa  had  no  wish  to  share  with  persons 
uninteresting  and  uncompanionable  her  serious 
views  of  life.  Sometimes  she  wondered  if,  after 
all,  she  was  not  as  old  as  the  hills  instead  of  twenty- 
five. 

She  began  as  of  old  to  study  carelessly  the  faces 
of  the  diners  and  to  speculate  as  to  their  characters 
and  occupations.  Her  negligent  observation  roved 
from  the  pompous  captain  down  to  the  dark  pic 
turesque  face  of  the  man  Craig.  Upon  him  her 
glance,  a  mixture  of  contempt  and  curiosity,  rested. 
If  he  behaved  himself  and  made  no  attempt  to  speak 
to  her,  she  was  willing  to  declare  a  truce.  In  Ran 
goon  the  man  had  been  drunk,  but  on  the  Irrawaddy 
boat  he  had  been  sober  enough.  Craig  kept  his  eyes 

no 


A  WOMAN'S  REASON 

directed  upon  his  food  and  did  not  offer  her  even  a 
furtive  glance. 

He  was  not  in  a  happy  state  of  mind.  He  had 
taken  passage  the  last  moment  to  avoid  meeting 
again  the  one  man  he  feared.  For  ten  years  this 
man  had  been  reckoned  among  the  lost.  Many  be 
lieved  him  dead,  and  Craig  had  wished  it  rather  than 
believed.  And  then,  to  meet  him  face  to  face  in 
that  sordid  boarding-house  had  shaken  the  cool 
nerve  of  the  gambler.  He  was  worried  and  bewil 
dered.  He  had  practically  sent  this  man  to  ruin. 
What  would  be  the  reprisal?  He  reached  for  a 
mangosteen  and  ate  the  white  pulpy  contents,  but 
without  the  customary  relish.  The  phrase  kept 
running  through  his  head:  What  would  be  the  re 
prisal?  For  men  of  his  ilk  never  struck  without 
expecting  to  be  struck  back.  Something  must  be 
done.  Should  he  seek  him  and  boldly  ask  what  he 
intended  to  do  ?  Certainly  he  could  not  do  much  on 
board  here,  except  to  denounce  him  to  the  officers 
as  a  professional  gambler.  And  Paul  would 
scarcely  do  that  since  he,  Craig,  had  a  better  shot  in 
his  gun.  He  could  tell  who  Paul  was  and  what  he 
had  done.  Bodily  harm  was  what  he  really  feared. 

in 


PARROT  &  CO. 

He  had  seen  Elsa,  but  he  had  worked  out  that 
problem  easily.  She  was  sure  to  say  nothing  so  long 
as  he  let  her  be;  and  with  the  episode  of  the  hat 
pin  still  fresh  in  his  memory,  he  assuredly  would 
keep  his  distance.  He  had  made  a  mistake,  and  was 
not  likely  to  repeat  it. 

But  Paul!  He  finished  his  dessert  and  went  off 
to  the  stuffy  little  smoke-room,  and  struggled  with 
a  Burma  cheroot.  Paul  was  a  smoker,  and  sooner 
or  later  he  would  drop  in.  There  would  be  no  beat 
ing  about  the  bush  on  his  part.  If  it  was  to  be  war, 
all  right ;  a  truce,  well  and  good.  But  he  wanted  to 
know,  and  he  was  not  going  to  let  fear  stand  in  the 
way.  He  waited  in  vain  for  his  man  that  night. 

And  so  did  Elsa.  She  felt  indignant  at  one  mo 
ment  and  hurt  at  another.  The  man's  attitude  was 
inexplicable ;  there  was  neither  rhyme  nor  reason  in 
it.  The  very  fact  that  she  could  not  understand 
made  her  wonder  march  beside  her  even  in  her 
dreams  that  night.  She  began  to  feel  genuinely 
sorry  that  he  had  appeared  above  her  horizon.  He 
had  disturbed  her  poise ;  he  had  thrown  her  accepted 
views  of  life  into  an  entirely  different  angle,  kaleido- 
scopically.  And  always  that  supernatural  likeness 


A  WOMAN'S  REASON 

to  the  other  man.  Elsa  began  to  experience  a  sen 
sation  like  that  which  attends  the  imagination  of  one 
in  the  clutch  of  a  nightmare:  she  hung  in  mid-air: 
she  could  neither  retreat  nor  go  forward.  Just  be 
fore  she  retired  she  leaned  over  the  rail,  watching 
the  reflection  of  the  stars  twist  and  shiver  on  the 
smooth  water.  Suddenly  she  listened.  She  might 
have  imagined  it,  for  at  night  the  ears  deceive. 
"  Jah,  jah ! "  Somewhere  from  below  came  the 
muffled  plaint  of  Rajah. 

Next  day,  at  luncheon,  the  chair  was  still  vacant. 
Elsa  became  alarmed.  Perhaps  he  was  ill.  She 
made  inquiries,  regardless  of  the  possible  misinter 
pretation  her  concern  might  be  given  by  others. 
Mr.  Warrington  had  had  his  meals  served  in  his 
cabin,  but  the  steward  declared  that  the  gentleman 
was  not  ill,  only  tired  and  irritable,  and  that  he 
amused  himself  with  a  trained  parrakeet. 

All  day  long  the  sea  lay  waveless  and  unrippled, 
a  sea  of  brass  and  lapis-lazuli ;  brass  where  the  sun 
struck  and  lapis-lazuli  in  the  shadow  of  the  lazy 
swells.  Schools  of  flying-fish  broke  fan-wise  in 
flashes  of  silver,  and  porpoise  sported  alongside. 
And  warmer  and  warmer  grew  the  air. 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Starboard  was  rigged  up  for  cricket,  and  the  ship's 
officers  and  some  of  the  passengers  played  the  game 
until  the  first  gong.  Elsa  grumbled  to  Martha. 
There  was  little  enough  space  to  walk  in  as  it  was 
without  the  men  taking  over  the  whole  side  of  the 
ship  and  cheating  her  out  of  a  glorious  sunset. 
Martha  grew  troubled  and  perplexed.  If  there  was 
one  phase  of  character  unknown  to  her  in  Elsa  it 
was  irritability ;  and  here  she  was,  finding  fault  like 
any  ordinary  tourist. 

"  Where  is  Mr.  Warrington  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  I  haven't  seen  him  since  yester 
day."  Elsa  dropped  her  book  petulantly.  "  I  am 
weary  of  these  namby-pamby  stories." 

"  Why,  I  thought  you  admired  that  author." 

"  Not  to-day  at  any  rate.     Silly  twaddle." 

Martha's  eyes  had  a  hopeless  look  in  them  as  she 
asked :  "  Elsa,  what  is  the  matter  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,  Martha.  I  believe  I  should  like 
to  lose  my  temper  utterly.  It  might  be  a  great  re 
lief." 

"  It's  the  climate." 

"  It  may  be.  But  it's  my  belief  I'm  irritable  be- 
114 


A  WOMAN'S  REASON 

cause  I  do  not  know  my  own  mind.  I  hate  the 
stuffy  stateroom,  the  food,  the  captain." 

"The  captain?" 

"  Yes.  Nothing  seems  to  disturb  his  conceit. 
To-night  we  sleep  on  deck,  the  starboard  side.  At 
five  o'clock  we  have  to  get  up  and  go  inside  again  so 
they  can  holystone  the  deck.  And  I  am  always 
soundest  asleep  at  that  time.  Doubtless,  I  shall  be 
irritable  all  day  to-morrow." 

"  Sleep  up  here  on  deck  ?  "  horrified. 

"  That,  or  suffocate  below." 

"But  the  men?" 

"  They  sleep  on  the  port  side."  Elsa  laughed 
maliciously.  "  Don't  worry.  Nobody  minds." 

"  I  hate  the  East,"  declared  Martha  vindictively. 
"  Everything  is  so  slack.  It  just  brings  out  the 
shiftlessness  in  everybody." 

"  Perhaps  that  is  what  ails  me ;  I  am  growing 
shiftless.  When  I  came  on  board  I  decided  to  marry 
Arthur,  and  have  done  with  the  pother.  Now  I  am 
at  the  same  place  as  when  I  left  home.  I  don  t 
want  to  marry  anybody.  Have  you  noticed  that 
fellow  Craig?" 

"5 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  What  will  you  do  if  he  speaks?  " 

"  I  have  half  a  dozen  good  hat-pins  left,"  dryly. 

"  I  hate  to  hear  you  talk  like  that." 

"  It's  the  East.  .  .  .  There  goes  that  hateful  gong 
again.  Soup,  chicken,  curry,  rice  and  piccalilli.  I 
am  going  to  live  on  plantains  and  mangosteens. 
I'm  glad  we  had  sense  enough  to  order  that  dis 
tilled  water.  I  should  die  if  I  had  to  drink  any 
more  soda.  I  wish  I  had  booked  straight  through. 
I  shall  be  bored  to  death  in  Japan,  much  as  I  wish 
to  see  the  cherry-blossom  dance.  Probably  I  shan't 
enjoy  anything.  Come ;  we'll  go  down  as  we  are  to 
dinner,  and  watch  the  ridiculous  captain  and  his  fan- 
bearer.  The  punka  will  at  least  give  us  a  breath  of 
fresh  air.  There  doesn't  seem  to  be  any  on  deck. 
One  regrets  Darjeeling." 

Martha  followed  her  young  mistress  into  the  din- 
ing-saloon;  she  was  anxious  and  upset.  Where 
would  this  mood  end?  With  a  glance  of  relief  she 
found  Warrington's  chair  still  vacant. 

The  saloon  had  an  air  of  freshness  to-night.  All 
the  men  were  in  drill  or  pongee,  and  so  receptive  is 
the  imagination  that  the  picture  robbed  the  room  of 
half  its  heat.  To  and  fro  the  punka  flapped;  the 

116 


A  WOMAN'S  REASON 

pulleys  creaked  and  the  ropes  scraped  above  the 
sound  of  knives  and  forks  and  spoons. 

Elsa  ate  little  besides  fruit.  She  spoke  scarcely 
a  word  to  Martha,  and  none  to  those  around  her. 
Thus,  she  missed  the  frown  of  the  colonel  and  the 
lifted  brows  of  the  spinsters,  and  the  curious  glances 
of  the  tourists.  The  passenger-list  had  not  yet  come 
from  the  ship's  press,  so  Elsa's  name  was  practically 
unknown.  But  in  some  unaccountable  manner  it 
had  become  known  that  she  had  been  making  inquir 
ies  in  regard  to  the  gentleman  in  cabin  78,  who  had 
thus  far  remained  away  from  the  table.  Ship  life 
is  a  dull  life,  and  gossip  is  about  the  only  thing 
that  makes  it  possible  to  live  through  the  day.  It 
was  quite  easy  to  couple  this  unknown  aloof  young 
woman  and  the  invisible  man,  and  then  to  wait  for 
results.  The  average  tourist  is  invariably  building 
a  romance  around  those  persons  who  interest  them, 
attractively  or  repellently.  They  have  usually  sat 
urated  their  minds  with  impossible  impressions  of 
the  East,  acquired  long  before  they  visit  it,  and  re 
fuse  to  accept  actualities.  It  would  have  amused 
Elsa  had  she  known  the  interest  she  had  already 
created  if  not  inspired.  Her  beauty  and  her  ap~ 

117 


PARROT  &  CO. 

parent  indifference  to  her  surroundings  were  par 
ticularly  adapted  to  the  romantic  mood  of  her  fel 
low-travelers.  Her  own  mind  was  so  broad 
and  generous,  so  high  and  detached,  that  so 
sordid  a  thing  as  "  an  affair  "  never  entered  her 
thoughts. 

As  she  refused  course  after  course,  a  single 
phrase  drummed  incessantly  through  her  tired  brain. 
She  was  not  going  to  marry  Arthur;  never,  never 
in  this  world.  She  did  not  love  him,  and  this  was 
to  be  final.  She  would  cable  him  from  Singapore. 
But  she  felt  no  elation  in  having  arrived  at  this  de 
termination.  In  fact,  there  was  a  tingle  of  defiance 
in  her  unwritten,  unspoken  ultimatum. 

That  night  Craig  found  it  insupportable  in  the 
cabin  below  ;\ so  he  ordered  his  steward  to  bring  up 
his  bedding.  He  had  lain  down  for  half  an  hour, 
grown  restless,  and  had  begun  to  walk  the  deck  in 
his  bath-slippers.  He  had  noted  the  still  white  fig 
ure  forward,  where  the  cross-rail  marks  the  waist. 
As  he  approached,  Craig  discovered  his  man.  He 
hesitated  only  a  moment ;  then  he  touched  Warring- 
ton's  arm. 

Warrington  turned  his  dull  eyes  upon  his  ancient 
118 


Warrington  turned 


A  WOMAN'S  REASON 

enemy.  "  So  it  is  you  ?  I  understood  you  were  on 
board.  Well  ?  "  uncompromisingly. 

"  I've  been  looking  for  you.  Bygones  are  by 
gones,  and  what's  done  can't  be  undone  by  punch 
ing  a  fellow's  head.  I'm  not  looking  for  trouble," 
went  on  Craig,  gaining  assurance.  "  I  am  practi 
cally  down  and  out  myself.  I  can't  go  back  to  the 
States  for  a  while.  All  I  want  is  to  get  to  Hong 
kong  in  peace  for  the  April  races.  What  stand  are 
you  going  to  take  on  board  here'  ?  That's  all  I  want 
to  know." 

"  It  would  give  me  great  pleasure,  Craig,  to  take 
you  by  the  scruff  of  your  neck  and  drop  you  over 
board.  But  as  you  say,  what's  been  done  can't  be 
remedied  by  bashing  in  a  man's  head.  Well,  here 
you  are,  since  you  ask.  If  you  speak  to  me,  if  I 
catch  you  playing  cards  or  auctioneering  a  pool,  if 
you  make  yourself  obnoxious  to  any  of  the  pas 
sengers,  I  promise  to  give  you  the  finest  thrashing 
you  ever  had,  the  moment  we  reach  Penang.  If 
you  don't  go  ashore  there,  I'll  do  it  in  Singapore. 
Have  I  made  myself  clear?  " 

"  That's  square  enough,  Paul,"  said  the  gambler 
resignedly.  There  wasn't  much  money  on  board 

119 


PARROT  &  CO. 

these  two-by-four  boats,  anyhow,  so  he  wasn't  los 
ing  much. 

Warrington  leaned  forward.  "  Paul  ?  You  said 
Paul?" 

"  Why,  yes,"  wonderingly. 

"  Better  go." 

"  All  right."  Craig  returned  to  his  mattress. 
"  Now,  what  made  him  curl  up  like  that  because  I 
called  him  Paul  ?  Bah !  "  He  dug  a  hole  in  his 
pillow  and  tried  to  sleep. 

"  Paul !  "  murmured  Warrington. 

He  stared  down  at  the  flashes  of  phosphorescence, 
blindly.  The  man  had  called  him  Paul.  After  ten 
years  to  learn  the  damnable  treachery  of  it!  Sud 
denly  he  clenched  his  hand  and  struck  the  rail.  He 
would  go  back.  All  his  loyalty,  all  his  chivalry, 
had  gone  for  naught.  This  low  rascal  had  called 
him  Paul. 


IX 


WHEN  Elsa  stepped  out  of  the  companion- 
way  the  next  morning  she  winced  and  shut 
her  eyes.  The  whole  arc  of  heaven  seemed  hung 
with  fire-opals;  east,  west,  north  and  south,  which 
ever  way  she  looked,  there  was  dazzling  iridescence. 
The  long  flowing  swells  ran  into  the  very  sky,  for 
there  was  visible  no  horizon.  Gold-leaf  and  opals, 
thought  Elsa.  What  a  wonderful  world !  What  a 
versatile  mistress  was  nature!  Never  two  days 
alike,  never  two  human  beings;  animate  and  inani 
mate,  all  things  were  singular.  She  paused  at  the 
rail  and  glanced  down  the  rusty  black  side  of  the 
ship  and  watched  the  thread  of  frothing  water  that 
clutched  futilely  at  the  red  water-line.  Never  two 
living  things  alike,  in  all  the  millions  and  millions 
swarming  the  globe.  What  a  marvel!  Even 
though  this  man  Warrington  and  Arthur  looked 

121 


PARROT  &  CO. 

alike,  they  were  not  so.  In  heart  and  mind  they 
were  as  different  as  two  days. 

She  began  her  usual  walk,  and  in  passing  the 
smoke-room  door  on  the  port  side  she  met  Warring- 
ton  coming  out.  How  deep-set  his  eyes  were !  He 
was  about  to  go  on,  but  she  looked  straight  into 
his  eyes,  and  he  stopped.  She  laughed,  and  held 
out  her  hand. 

"  I  really  believe  you  were  going  to  snub  me." 

"  Then  you  haven't  given  me  up  ?  " 

"  Never  mind  what  I  have  or  have  not  done. 
Walk  with  me.  I  am  going  to  talk  plainly  to  you. 
If  what  I  say  is  distasteful,  don't  hesitate  to  inter 
rupt  me.  You  interest  me,  partly  because  you  act 
like  a  boy,  partly  because  you  are  a  man." 

"  I  haven't  any  manners." 

"  They  need  shaking  up  and  readjusting.  I  have 
just  been  musing  over  a  remarkable  thing,  that  no 
two  objects  are  alike.  Even  the  most  accurate  ma 
chinery  can  not  produce  two  nails  without  variation. 
So  it  is  with  humans.  You  look  so  like  the  man  I 
know  back  home  that  it  is  impossible  not  to  ponder 
over  you."  She  smiled  into  his  face.  "  Why 
should  nature  produce  two  persons  who  are  mis- 

122 


TWO  SHORT  WEEKS 

taken  for  each  other,  and  yet  give  them  two  souls, 
two  intellects,  totally  different?" 

"  I  have  often  wondered." 

"  Is  nature  experimenting,  or  is  she  slyly  playing 
a  trick  on  humanity  ?  " 

"  Let  us  call  it  a  trick ;  by  all  means,  let  us  call 
it  that." 

"  Your  tone  .  .  ." 

"  Yes,  yes,"  impatiently ;  "  you  are  going  to  say 
that  it  sounds  bitter.  But  why  should  another  man 
have  a  face  like  mine,  when  we  have  nothing  in 
common  ?  What  right  has  he  to  look  like  me  ?  " 

"  It  is  a  puzzle,"  Elsa  admitted. 

"  This  man  who  looks  like  me  —  I  have  no  doubt 
it  affects  you  oddly  —  probably  lives  in  ease ;  never 
knew  what  a  buffet  meant,  never  knew  what  a  care 
was,  has  everything  he  wants;  in  fact,  a  gentleman 
of  your  own  class,  whose  likes  and  dislikes  ar6  cut 
from  the  same  pattern  as  your  own.  Well,  that  is 
as  it  should  be.  A  woman  such  as  you  are  ought 
to  marry  an  equal,  a  man  whose  mind  and  manners 
are  fitted  to  the  high  place  he  holds  in  your  affection 
and  in  your  world.  How  many  worlds  there  are, 
man-made  and  heaven-made,  and  each  as  deadly  as 

123 


PARROT  &  CO. 

the  other,  as  cold  and  implacable!  To  you,  who 
have  been  kind  to  me,  I  have  acted  like  a  fool.  The 
truth  is,  I've  been  skulking.  My  vanity  was  hurt. 
I  had  the  idea  that  it  was  myself  and  not  my  re 
semblance  that  appealed  to  your  interest.  What 
makes  you  trust  me  ?  "  bluntly ;  and  he  stopped  as  he 
asked  the  question. 

"  Why,  I  don't  know,"  blankly.  Instantly  she 
recovered  herself.  "  But  I  do  trust  you."  She 
walked  on,  and  perforce  he  fell  into  her  stride. 

"  It  is  because  you  trust  the  other  man." 

"  Thanks.  That  is  it  precisely ;  and  for  nearly 
two  weeks  I've  been  trying  to  solve  that  very  thing." 

After  a  pause  he  asked :  "  Have  you  ever  read 
Reade's  Singleheart  and  Doublefacef  " 

"  Yes.  But  what  bearing  has  it  upon  our  discus 
sion?" 

"  None  that  you  would  understand,"  evasively. 
His  tongue  had  nearly  tripped  him. 

"  Are  you  sure  ?  " 

"Of  this,  that  I  shall  never  understand  women." 

"  Do  not  try  to,"  she  advised.  "  All  those  men 
who  knew  most  about  women  were  the  unhappiest." 

They  made  a  round  in  silence.  Passengers  were 
124 


TWO  SHORT  WEEKS 

beginning  to  get  into  their  deck-chairs;  and  Elsa 
noted  the  backs  of  the  many  novels  that  ranged 
from  the  pure  chill  altitudes  of  classic  and  demi- 
classics  down  to  the  latest  popular  yarn.  Many  an 
eye  peered  over  the  tops  of  the  books ;  and  envy  and 
admiration  and  curiosity  brought  their  shafts  to  bear 
upon  her.  It  was  something  to  create  these  variant 
expressions  of  interest.  She  was  oblivious. 

"  We  stop  at  Penang?  "  she  asked. 

"  Five  or  six  hours,  long  enough  to  see  the  town." 

"  We  went  directly  from  Singapore  to  Colombo, 
so  we  missed  the  town  coming  out.  I  should  like 
to  see  that  cocoanut  plantation  of  yours." 

"  It  is  too  far  inland.  Besides,  I  am  a  persona 
non  grata  there."  As,  indeed,  he  was.  His  heart 
burned  with  shame  and  rage  at  the  recollection  of 
the  last  day  there.  Three  or  four  times,  during  the 
decade,  the  misfortune  of  being  found  out  had  fallen 
to  his  lot,  and  always  when  he  was  employed  at 
something  worth  while. 

Elsa  discreetly  veered  into  another  channel. 
"  You  will  go  back  to  Italy,  I  suppose.  How 
cheaply  and  delightfully  one  may  live  there,  when 
one  knows  something  of  the  people !  I  had  the  Villa 

125 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Julia  one  spring.  You  know  it;  Sorrento.  Is 
there  anything  more  stunning  than  oranges  in  the 
rain?"  irrelevantly. 

"  Yes,  I  shall  go  to  Italy  once  more.  But  first  I 
am  going  home."  He  was  not  aware  of  the  grim- 
ness  that  entered  his  voice  as  he  made  this  state 
ment. 

'"I  am  glad,"  she  said.     "After  all,  that  is  the 
one  place." 

"  If  you  are  happy  enough  to  find  a  welcome." 

"  And  you  will  see  your  mother  again  ?  " 

He  winced.  "  Yes.  Do  you  know,  it  does  not 
seem  possible  that  I  met  you  but  two  short  weeks 
ago?  I  have  never  given  much  thought  to  this  so- 
called  reincarnation;  but  somewhere  in  the  past 
ages  I  knew  you ;  only  .  .  ." 

"Only  what?" 

"  Only,  you  weren't  going  home  to  marry  the 
other  fellow." 

She  stopped  at  the  rail.  "  Who  knows  ?  "  she  re 
plied  ruminatingly.  "  Perhaps  I  am  not  going  to 
marry  him." 

"Don't  you  love  him?  ...  I  beg  your  pardon, 
Miss  Chetwood!" 

126 


She  stopped  at  the  rail 


TWO  SHORT  WEEKS 

i 
"  You're  excused." 

"  I  still  need  some  training.  I  have  been  alone 
so  much  that  I  haven't  got  over  the  trick  of  speaking 
my  thoughts  aloud." 

"  No  harm  has  been  done.  The  fault  lay  with 
me." 

"  I  used  to  learn  whole  pages  from  stories  and 
recite  them  to  the  trees  or  to  the  parrot.  It  kept 
me  from  going  mad,  I  believe.  In  camp  I  handled 
coolies ;  none  of  whom  could  speak  a  word  of  Eng 
lish.  I  didn't  have  James  with  me  at  that  time. 
During  the  day  I  was  busy  enough  seeing  that  they 
did  their  work  well.  When  things  ran  smoothly  I'd 
take  out  a  book  and  study.  At  night  I'd  stand  be 
fore  my  tent  and  declaim.  I  could  not  read  at 
night.  If  I  lighted  a  lantern  the  tent  would  become 
alive  with  abominable  insects.  So  I'd  declaim, 
merely  to  hear  the  sound  of  my  voice.  Afterward 
I  learned  that  the  coolies  looked  upon  me  as  a  holy 
man.  They  believed  I  was  nightly  offering  prayers 
to  one  of  my  gods.  Perhaps  I  was;  the  god  of  rea 
son.  In  the  mornings  I  used  to  have  to  shake  my 
boots.  Frogs  and  snakes  would  get  in  during  the 
night,  the  latter  in  search  of  the  former. 

127 


TWO  SHORT  WEEKS 

/ 
;'  You're  excused." 

"  I  still  need  some  training.  I  have  been  alone 
so  much  that  I  haven't  got  over  the  trick  of  speaking 
my  thoughts  aloud." 

"  No  harm  has  been  done.  The  fault  lay  with 
me." 

"  I  used  to  learn  whole  pages  from  stories  and 
recite  them  to  the  trees  or  to  the  parrot.  It  kept 
me  from  going  mad,  I  believe.  In  camp  I  handled 
coolies ;  none  of  whom  could  speak  a  word  of  Eng 
lish.  I  didn't  have  James  with  me  at  that  time. 
During  the  day  I  was  busy  enough  seeing  that  they 
did  their  work  well.  When  things  ran  smoothly  I'd 
take  out  a  book  and  study.  At  night  I'd  stand  be 
fore  my  tent  and  declaim.  I  could  not  read  at 
night.  If  I  lighted  a  lantern  the  tent  would  become 
alive  with  abominable  insects.  So  I'd  declaim, 
merely  to  hear  the  sound  of  my  voice.  Afterward 
I  learned  that  the  coolies  looked  upon  me  as  a  holy 
man.  They  believed  I  was  nightly  offering  prayers 
to  one  of  my  gods.  Perhaps  I  was ;  the  god  of  rea 
son.  In  the  mornings  I  used  to  have  to  shake  my 
boots.  Frogs  and  snakes  would  get  in  during  the 
night,  the  latter  in  search  of  the  former. 

127 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Lively  times!  All  that  seems  like  a  bad  dream 
now." 

"And  how  is  Rajah?" 

"  Ugly  as  ever." 

"  Are  you  going  to  take  him  with  you?  " 

"  Wherever  I  go.  Looks  silly,  doesn't  it,  for  a 
man  of  my  size  to  tote  around  a  parrot-cage?  But 
I  don't  care  what  people  think.  Life  is  too 
short.  It's  what  you  think  of  yourself  that  really 
counts." 

"  That  is  one  of  the  rules  I  have  laid  down  for 
myself.  If  only  we  all  might  go  through  life  with 
that  idea!  There  wouldn't  be  any  gossip  or 
scandal,  then." 

"  Some  day  I  am  going  to  tell  you  why  I  have 
lived  over  here  all  these  years." 

"  I  shouldn't,  not  if  it  hurts  you." 

"  On  the  contrary,  there's  a  kind  of  happiness  in 
unburdening  one's  conscience.  I  called  that  day  in 
Rangoon  for  the  express  purpose  of  telling  you 
everything,  but  I  couldn't  in  the  presence  of  a  third 
person." 

"  I  do  not  demand  it." 

"  But  it's  a  duty  I  owe  to  myself,"  he  insisted 
128 


TWO  SHORT  WEEKS 

gravely.  "  Besides,  it  is  not  impossible  that  you 
may  hear  the  tale  from  other  lips ;  and  I  rather  pre 
fer  to  tell  it  myself." 

"  But  always  remember  that  I  haven't  asked  you." 

"  Are  you  afraid  to  hear  it?  " 

"  No.  What  I  am  trying  to  convince  you  with  is 
the  fact  that  I  trust  you,  and  that  I  give  you  my 
friendship  without  reservations." 

He  laid  his  hand  on  hers,  strongly.  "  God  bless 
you  for  that !  " 

She  liked  him  because  there  was  lacking  in  his 
words  and  tones  that  element  of  flattery  so  dis 
tasteful  to  her.  Men  generally  entertain  the  fallacy 
that  a  woman  demands  homage,  first  to  her  physical 
appearance,  next  to  her  taste  in  gowns,  and  finally  to 
her  intellect,  when  in  the  majority  of  cases  it  is  the 
other  way  around.  Elsa  knew  that  she  was  beauti 
ful,  but  it  no  longer  interested  her  to  hear  men  state 
the  fact,  knowing  as  she  did  that  it  was  simply  to 
win  her  good  will. 

"  Would  you  like  to  sit  next  to  me  at  the  table?  " 

"May  I?  "eagerly. 

"  I'll  have  Martha  change  her  chair  for  yours. 
Do  you  speak  Italian  ?  " 

129 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  Enough  for  ordinary  conversation.  It  is  a  long 
time  since  I  have  spoken  the  tongue." 

"  Then,  let  us  talk  it  as  much  as  possible  at  the 
table,  if  only  to  annoy  those  around  us." 

He  laughed. 

"  I  was  educated  in  Rome,"  she  added. 

"  Are  you  religious  ?  " 

Elsa  shrugged.  "  At  present  I  don't  know  just 
what  my  religion  is.  Scandalous,  isn't  it  ?  But  for 
many  weeks  a  thousand  gods  have  beset  me.  I've 
got  to  get  back  to  civilization  in  order  to  readjust 
my  views.  At  luncheon,  then.  I  am  beginning  to 
feel  snoozy." 

Craig  had  been  eying  the  two,  evilly.  Set  the 
wind  in  that  direction?  An  idea  found  soil  in  his 
mind,  and  grew.  He  would  put  a  kink,  as  he 
vulgarly  expressed  it,  into  that  affair.  He  himself 
wasn't  good  enough  for  her.  The  little  cat  should 
see.  Warrington's  ultimatum  of  the  night  before 
burned  and  rankled,  and  a  man  of  Craig's  caliber 
never  accepted  the  inevitable  without  meditating  re 
venge,  revenge  of  a  roundabout  character,  such  as 
would  insure  his  physical  safety.  The  man  could 
not  play  fair ;  there  was  nothing  either  in  his  heart 

130 


TWO  SHORT  WEEKS 

or  in  his  mind  upon  which  square  play  could  find 
foothold.  There  was  nothing  loyal  or  generous  or 
worthy  in  the  man.  There  is  something  admirable 
in  a  great  rascal;  but  a  sordid  one  is  a  pitiful  thing. 
Craig  entered  the  smoke-room  and  ordered  a  peg. 
At  luncheon  he  saw  them  sitting  together,  and  he 
smothered  a  grin.  Couldn't  play  cards,  or  engineer 
a  pool,  eh?  All  right.  There  were  other  amuse 
ments. 

That  afternoon  Martha  chanced  to  sit  down  in  a 
vacant  chair,  just  out  of  the  range  of  the  cricketers. 
She  lolled  back  and  idly  watched  the  batsmen. 
And  then  she  heard  voices. 

"  She  is  Elsa  Chetwood.  I  remember  seeing  her 
pictures.  She  is  a  society  girl,  very  wealthy,  but 
something  of  a  snob." 

Martha's  ears  tingled.  A  snob,  indeed,  because 
she  minded  principally  her  own  affairs! 

"  They  think  because  they  belong  to  the  exclu 
sive  sets  they  can  break  as  many  laws  of  convention 
as  they  please.  Well,  they  can't.  There's  always 
some  scandal  in  the  papers  about  them.  There  was 
some  rumor  of  her  being  engaged  to  the  Duke  of 
What's-his-name,  but  it  fell  through  because  she 


PARROT  &  CO. 

wouldn't  settle  a  fortune  on  him.     Only  sensible 
thing  she  ever  did,  probably." 

"And  did  you  notice  who  sat  next  to  her  at 
luncheon?  " 

"  A  gentleman  with  a  past,  Mr.  Craig  tells  me." 

"  I  dare  say  Miss  Chetwood  has  a  past,  too,  if  one 
but  knew.  To  travel  alone  like  this !  " 

Busybodies!  Martha  rose  indignantly  and  re 
turned  to  the  other  side  of  the  deck.  Meddlers! 
What  did  they  know?  To  peck  like  daws  at  one 
so  far  above  them,  so  divinely  far  above  them! 
Her  natural  impulse  had  been  to  turn  upon  them 
and  give  them  the  tongue-lashing  they  deserved. 
But  she  had  lived  too  long  with  Elsa  not  to  have 
learned  self-repression,  and  that  the  victory  is  al 
ways  with  those  who  stoop  not  to  answer.  Never 
theless,  she  was  alarmed.  Elsa  must  be  warned. 

All  Elsa  said  was :  "  My  dear  Martha,  in  a  few 
days  they  and  their  tittle-tattle  will  pass  out  of  my 
existence,  admitting  that  they  have  ever  entered  it. 
I  repeat,  my  life  is  all  my  own,  and  that  I  am  con 
cerned  only  with  those  whom  I  wish  to  retain  as  my 
friends.  Gossip  is  the  shibboleth  of  the  mediocre, 
and,  thank  heaven,  I  am  not  mediocre." 

132 


TWO  SHORT  WEEKS 

While  dressing  for  dinner  Elsa  discovered  a  note 
on  the  floor  of  her  cabin.  The  writing  was  unfa 
miliar.  She  opened  it  and  sought  first  the  signa 
ture.  Slowly  her  cheeks  reddened,  and  her  lips 
twisted  in  disdain.  She  did  not  read  the  note,  but 
the  natural  keenness  of  her  eye  caught  the  name  of 
Warrington.  She  tore  the  letter  into  scraps  which 
she  tossed  out  the  port-hole.  What  a  vile  thing  the 
man  was!  He  had  had  the  effrontery  to  sign  his 
name.  He  must  be  punished. 

It  was  as  late  as  ten  o'clock  when  she  and  War 
rington  went  up  to  the  bow  and  gazed  down  the  cut 
water.  Never  had  she  seen  anything  so  weirdly 
beautiful  as  the  ribbons  of  phosphorescence  which 
fell  away  on  each  side,  luminously  blue  and  flaked 
with  dancing  starlike  particles,  through  which,  ever 
and  anon,  flying-fish,  dripping  with  the  fire,  spun 
outward  like  tongues  of  flame. 

"Beautiful,  beautiful!  This  is  the  one  spot  on 
the  ship.  And  in  all  my  travels  I  have  never  seen 
this  before.  All  silence  and  darkness  in  front  of  us, 
and  beneath,  that  wonderful  fire.  Thanks  for 
bringing  me  here.  I  should  not  have  known  what  I 
was  missing." 

133 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  Often,  when  I  was  stoking,  during  an  hour  or 
so  of  relief,  I  used  to  steal  up  here  and  look  down  at 
the  mystery,  for  it  will  ever  be  a  mystery  to  me. 
And  I  found  comfort." 

"  Are  you  religious,  too  ?  " 

"  In  one  thing,  that  God  demands  that  every  man 
shall  have  faith  in  himself." 

How  deep  his  voice  was  as  compared  to  Arthur's ! 
Arthur.  Elsa  frowned  at  the  rippling  magic. 
Why  was  she  invariably  comparing  the  two  men? 
What  significance  did  it  have  upon  the  future,  since, 
at  the  present  moment,  it  was  not  understandable? 

"  There  is  a  man  on  board  by  the  name  of  Craig," 
she  said.  "  I  advise  you  to  beware  of  him." 

"Who  introduced  him  to  you?"  The  anger  in 
his  voice  was  very  agreeable  to  her  ears.  "  Who 
dared  to?" 

"  No  one.  He  introduced  himself  on  the  way  up 
to  Mandalay.  In  Rangoon  I  closed  the  acquaint 
ance,  such  as  it  was,  with  the  aid  of  a  hat-pin." 

"  A  hat-pin!     What  did  he  say  to  you?  "  roughly. 

"  Nothing  that  I  care  to  repeat.  .  .  .  Stop !  I  am 
perfectly  able  to  take  care  of  myself.  I  do  not  need 
any  valiant  champion." 

134 


TWO  SHORT  WEEKS 

"He  has  spoken  to  you  about  me?" 

"  A  letter.  I  saw  only  his  name  and  yours.  I 
tore  it  up  and  threw  it  overboard.  Let  us  go  back. 
Somehow,  everything  seems  spoiled.  I  am  sorry 
I  spoke." 

"  I  shall  see  that  he  does  not  bother  you  again," 
ominously. 

They  returned  to  the  promenade  deck  in  silence. 

When  Warrington  found  Craig  the  man  was 
helplessly  intoxicated.  He  lay  sprawled  upon  his 
mattress,  and  the  kick  administered  did  not  stir  him. 
Warrington  looked  down  at  the  sodden  wretch 
moodily. 

Craig's  intoxication  was  fortunate  for  him,  other 
wise  he  would  have  been  roughly  handled ;  for  there 
was  black  murder  in  the  heart  of  the  broken  man 
standing  above  him.  Warrington  relaxed  his 
clenched  hands.  This  evil-breathing  thing  at  his 
feet  was  the  primal  cause  of  it  all,  he  and  a  man's 
damnable  weakness.  Of  what  use  his  new-found 
fortune?  Better  for  him  had  he  stayed  in  the 
jungle,  better  have  died  there,  hugging  his  poor  de 
lusion.  Oh,  abysmal  fool  that  he  had  been ! 


X 

THE   CUT  DIRECT 

IT  was  after  five  in  the  morning  when  the  deck 
hands  tried  to  get  Craig  to  go  down  to  his  room. 
With  the  dull  obstinacy  of  a  drunken  man,  he  re 
fused  to  stir;  he  was  perfectly  satisfied  to  stay  where 
he  was.  The  three  brown  men  stood  irresolutely 
and  helplessly  around  the  man.  Every  one  had  gone 
below.  The  hose  was  ready  to  flush  the  deck.  It 
did  not  matter ;  he,  Craig,  would  not  budge. 

"  Leave  me  alone,  you  black  beggars !  " 

"  But,  Sahib,"  began  one  of  the  Lascars,  who 
spoke  English. 

"  Don't  talk  to  me.  I  tell  you,  get  out  I "  strik 
ing  at  their  feet  with  his  swollen  hands. 

Warrington,  who  had  not  lain  down  at  all,  but 
who  had  wandered  about  the  free  decks  like  some 
lost  soul  from  The  Flying  Dutchman,  Warrington, 
hearing  voices,  came  out  of  the  smoke-room.  A 

136 


THE  CUT  DIRECT 

glance  was  sufficient.  A  devil's  humor  took  pos 
session  of  him.  He  walked  over. 

"  Get  up,"  he  said  quietly. 

Craig  blinked  up  at  him  from  out  of  puffed  eyes. 
"  Go  to  the  devil !  Fine  specimen  to  order  me 
about." 

"Will  you  get  up  peacefully?  These  men  have 
work  to  do." 

Craig  was  blind  to  his  danger.  "  What's  that  to 
me?  Go  away,  all  of  you,  to  the  devil,  for  all  I 
care.  I'll  get  up  when  I  get  damn  good  and  ready. 
Not  before." 

Warrington  picked  up  the  hose. 

"  Sahib !  "  cried  the  Lascar  in  protest. 

"  Be  still !  "  ordered  Warrington.  "  Craig,  for 
the  last  time,  will  you  get  up?" 

"  No !  " 

Warrington  turned  the  key,  and  a  deluge  of  cold 
salt-water  struck  Craig  full  in  the  chest.  He  tried 
to  sit  up,  but  was  knocked  flat.  Then  he  rolled 
over  on  the  deck,  choking  and  sputtering.  He 
crawled  on  his  hands  and  knees  until  he  reached  the 
chair-rail,  which  he  clutched  desperately,  drawing 
himself  up.  The  pitiless  stream  never  swerved.  It 

137 


PARROT  &  CO. 

smacked  against  the  flat  of  his  back  like  the  impact 
of  a  hand. 

"For  God's  sake  stop  it!"  cried  Craig,  half 
strangled. 

"Will  you  go  below?" 

"  Yes,  yes !  Turn  it  away ! "  sober  enough  by 
now. 

Warrington  switched  off  the  key,  his  face  humor 
less,  though  there  was  a  sparkle  of  grim  humor  in 
his  sleep-hungry  eyes.  Craig  leaned  against  the 
deck-house,  shaking  and  panting. 

"  I  would  I  could  get  at  your  soul  as  easily." 
Warrington  threw  aside  the  hose,  and  the  Lascars 
sprang  upon  it,  not  knowing  what  the  big  blond 
Sahib  might  do  next. 

Craig  turned,  venom  on  his  tongue.  He  spoke  a 
phrase.  In  an  instant,  cold  with  fury,  Warrington 
had  him  by  the  throat. 

"  You  low  base  cur ! "  he  said,  shaking  the  man 
until  he  resembled  a  manikin  on  wires.  "  Had 
you  been  sober  last  night,  I'd  have  thrown  you  into 
the  sea.  Honorless  dog !  You  wrote  to  Miss  Chet- 
wood.  You  insulted  her,  too.  If  you  wish  to  die, 
speak  to  her  again." 

138 


'For  God's  sake,  stop  it!" 


THE  CUT  DIRECT 

Craig  struggled  fiercely  to  free  himself.  He 
wasn't  sure,  by  the  look  of  the  other  man's  eyes, 
that  he  wasn't  going  to  be  killed  then  and  there. 
There  was  something  cave-mannish  and  cruel  in  the 
way  Warrington  worried  the  man,  shaking  him  from 
side  to  side  and  forcing  him  along  the  deck.  Sud 
denly  he  released  his  hold,  adding  a  buffet  on  the 
side  of  the  head  that  sent  Craig  reeling  and  sob 
bing  into  the  companionway. 

"  Here,  I  say,  what's  the  row?  " 

Warrington  looked  over  his  shoulder.  The  call 
had  come  from  the  first  officer. 

"A  case  of  drunkenness,"  coolly. 

"  But  I  say,  we  can't  have  brawling  on  deck,  sir. 
You  ought  to  know  that.  If  the  man's  conduct  was 
out  of  order,  you  should  have  brought  your  com 
plaint  before  the  captain  or  me.  We  really  can't 
have  any  rowing,  sir." 

Warrington  replied  gravely :  "  Expediency  was 
quite  necessary." 

"What's  this?"  The  officer  espied  the  soaked 
bedding.  "  Who  turned  the  hose  here  ?  " 

"  I  did,"  answered  Warrington. 

"  I  shall  have  to  report  that  to  the  captain,  sir. 

139 


PARROT  &  CO. 

It's  against  the  rules  aboard  this  steamship  for  pas 
sengers  to  touch  anything  of  that  sort."  The  officer 
turned  and  began  violently  to  abuse  the  bewildered 
Lascars. 

"  I  shouldn't  bullyrag  them,  sir,"  interposed  Waf- 
rington.  "  They  protested.  I  helped  myself. 
After  all,  perhaps  it  was  none  of  my  affair;  but 
the  poor  devils  didn't  know  what  to  do." 

The  officer  ordered  the  Lascars  to  take  the  mat 
tress  and  throw  it  on  the  boat-deck,  where  it  would 
dry  quickly  when  the  sun  rose.  Already  the  world 
was  pale  with  light,  and  a  slash  of  crimson  lay  low 
on  the  rim  of  the  east. 

"  I  shouldn't  like  to  be  disagreeable,  sir,"  said  the 
officer.  "  I  dare  say  the  man  made  himself  ob 
noxious  ;  but  I'm  obliged  to  report  anything  of  this 
order." 

"  Don't  be  alarmed  on  my  account.  My  name  is 
Warrington,  cabin  78.  Good  morning." 

Warrington  entered  the  companionway ;  and  a 
moment  later  he  heard  the  water  hiss  along  the  deck. 
He  was  not  in  the  least  sorry  for  what  he  had  done ; 
still,  he  regretted  the  act.  Craig  was  a  beast,  and 
there  was  no  knowing  what  he  might  do  or  say. 

140 


THE  CUT  DIRECT 

But  the  hose  had  been  simply  irresistible.  He 
chuckled  audibly  on  the  way  down  to  his  cabin. 
There  was  one  thing  of  which  he  was  assured; 
Craig  would  keep  out  of  his  way  in  the  future.  The 
exhilaration  of  the  struggle  suddenly  left  him,  and 
he  realized  that  he  was  dreadfully  tired  and  heart- 
achy.  Still  dressed,  he  flung  himself  in  his  bunk, 
and  immediately  fell  into  a  heavy  dreamless  sleep 
that  endured  until  luncheon. 

Shortly  after  luncheon  something  happened  down 
in  the  engine-room;  and  the  chief  engineer  said  that 
they  would  have  to  travel  at  half  speed  to  Penang. 
In  other  words,  they  would  not  make  the  port  to-day, 
Sunday,  but  to-morrow.  Another  day  with  this 
mysterious  tantalizing  woman,  thought  Warrington. 
He  went  in  search  of  her,  but  before  he  found  her, 
he  was  summoned  to  the  captain's  cabin.  Warring- 
ton  presented  himself,  mildly  curious.  The  captain 
nodded  to  a  stool. 

"  Sit  down,  Mr.  Warrington.  Will  you  have  a 
cheroot?" 

"  Yes,  thanks." 

A  crackle  of  matches  followed. 

"This   fellow  Craig  has  complained  about  his 
1411 


PARROT  &  CO. 

treatment  by  you  this  morning.  I  fancy  you  were 
rather  rough  with  him." 

"  Perhaps.  He  was  very  drunk  and  abusive,  and 
he  needed  cold  water  more  than  anything  else.  I 
once  knew  the  man." 

"  Ah !  But  it  never  pays  to  manhandle  that  par 
ticular  brand  of  tippler.  They  always  retaliate  in 
some  way." 

"  I  suppose  he  has  given  you  an  excerpt  from  my 
history?" 

"  He  says  you  can  not  return  to  the  States." 

"  I  am  returning  on  the  very  first  boats  I  can 
find." 

"  Then  he  was  lying?  " 

"  Not  entirely.  I  do  not  know  what  he  has 
told  you,  and  I  really  do  not  care.  The  fact  is, 
Craig  is  a  professional  gambler,  and  I  warned  him 
not  to  try  any  of  his  tricks  on  board.  It  soured 
him." 

"  And  knowing  myself  that  he  was  a  professional, 
I  gave  no  weight  to  his  accusations.  Besides,  it  is 
none  of  my  business.  The  worst  scoundrel  unhung 
has  certain  rights  on  my  ship.  If  he  behaves  him 
self,  that  is  sufficient  for  me.  Now,  what  Craig 

142 


THE  CUT  DIRECT 

told  me  doesn't  matter ;  but  it  matters  that  I  warned 
him.  A  word  to  any  one  else,  and  I'll  drop  him  at 
Penang  to-morrow,  to  get  out  the  best  way  he  can. 
Ships  passing  there  this  time  of  year  are  generally 
full-up.  Will  you  have  a  peg?" 

"  No,  thanks.  But  I  wish  to  say  that  it  is  very 
decent  of  you."  Warrington  rose. 

"  I  have  traveled  too  long  not  to  recognize  a  man 
when  I  see  him.  Do  you  play  cricket?  "  asked  the 
captain,  his  gaze  critically  covering  the  man  before 
him. 

"  No ;  I  regret  I'm  not  familiar  with  the  game." 
"Ah!  well,  drop  in  any  night  after  ten,  if  you 
care  to." 

"  I  shall  be  glad  to  accept  your  hospitality." 
Outside,  Warrington  mused  on  the  general  un 
truths  of  first  impressions.  He  had  written  down 
the  captain  as  a  pompous,  self-centered  individual. 
One  never  could  judge  a  man  until  he  came  to  the 
scratch.  It  heartened  him  to  find  that  there  was  a 
man  on  board  who  respected  his  misfortune, 
whether  he  believed  it  or  not.  He  sought  Elsa,  and 
as  they  promenaded,  lightly  recounted  the  episode  of 
the  morning. 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Elsa  expressed  her  delight  in  laughter  that  was 
less  hearty  than  malicious.  How  clearly  she  could 
see  the  picture !  And  then,  the  ever-recurring  com 
parisons  :  Arthur  would  have  gone  by,  Arthur  would 
not  have  bothered  himself,  for  he  detested  scenes 
and  fisticuffs.  How  few  real  men  she  had  met, 
men  who  walked  through  life  naturally,  unfettered 
by  those  self-applied  manacles  called  "  What  will 
people  say?" 

"  Let  us  go  up  to  the  bow,"  she  invited.  "  I've 
a  little  story  myself  to  tell." 

They  clambered  down  and  up  the  ladders,  over 
the  windlass  and  anchor-chains  which  a  native  was 
busily  painting.  A  school  of  porpoise  were  frolick 
ing  under  the  cutwater.  Plop!  plop!  they  went; 
and  sometimes  one  would  turn  sidewise  and  look  up 
roguishly  with  his  twinkling  seal-like  eyes.  Plop! 
plop!  Finally  all  save  one  sank  gracefully  out  of 
sight.  The  laggard  crisscrossed  the  cutwater  a 
dozen  times,  just  to  show  the  watchers  how  ex 
tremely  clever  he  was;  and  then,  with  a  plop!  that 
was  louder  than  any  previous  one,  he  vanished  into 
the  deeps. 

"  I  love  these  Oriental  seas,"  said  Elsa,  with  her 
144 


THE  CUT  DIRECT 

arms  on  the  rail  and  her  chin  resting  upon  them. 
She  wore  no  hat,  and  her  hair  shimmered  in  the 
sun  and  shivered  in  the  wind. 

"  And  yet  they  are  the  most  treacherous  of  all 
seas.  There's  not  a  cloud  in  sight;  in  two  hours 
from  now  we  may  be  in  the  heart  of  a  winter 
storm.  Happily,  they  are  rarities  along  this  coast ; 
so  you  will  not  have  the  excitement  of  a  ship 
wreck." 

"  I  am  grateful  for  that  Mercy!  Think  of  be 
ing  marooned  on  a  desert  island  with  the  colonel 
and  his  three  spinsters!  Proprieties,  from  morn 
ing  until  night.  And  the  chattering  tourists! 
Heaven  forf end !  " 

"  You  had  a  story  to  tell  me,"  he  suggested.  His 
heart  was  hot  within  him.  He  wanted  to  sweep  her 
up  in  his  arms  and  hold  her  there  forever.  But  the 
barrier  of  wasted  opportunities  stood  between. 
How  delicately  beautiful  she  was :  Bernini's  Daphne. 

"Oh,  yes;  I  had  almost  forgotten."  She  stood 
up  and  felt  for  wandering  strands  of  hair.  "  I  find 
the  world  more  amusing  day  by  day.  I  ought  to 
feel  hurt,  but  I  am  only  amused.  I  spoke  to  the 
colonel  this  morning,  merely  to  say  howdy-do.  He 

145 


PARROT  &  CO. 

stared  me  in  the  eye  and  de-lib-erately  turned  his 
back  to  me." 

"The  doddering  old—" 

"There,  there!  It  isn't  worth  getting  angry 
about." 

"  But,  don't  you  understand  ?  It's  all  because  of 
me.  Simply  because  you  have  been  kind  to  a  poor 
dfevil,  they  start  in  to  snub  you,  you!  I'll  go  back 
to  my  old  seat  at  the  table.  You  mustn't  walk  with 
me  any  more." 

"  Don't  be  silly.  If  you  return  to  your  chair,  if 
you  no  longer  walk  with  me,  they'll  find  a  thousand 
things  to  talk  about.  Since  I  do  not  care,  why 
should  you  ?  " 

"Can't  I  make  it  clear  to  you?"  desperately. 

"I  see  with  reasonable  eyes,  if  that  is  what  you 
mean.  The  people  I  know,  mine  own  people,  under 
stand  Elsa  Chetwood." 

So  her  name  was  Elsa?  He  repeated  it  over  and 
over  in  his  mind. 

She  continued  her  exposition.  "  There  are  but 
few,  gently  born.  They  are  generous  and  broad- 
minded.  They  could  not  be  mine  own  people  other- 

146 


THE  CUT  DIRECT 

wise.  They  are  all  I  care  about.  I  shun  medi 
ocrity  as  I  would  the  plague.  I  refuse  to  permit  it 
to  touch  me,  either  with  words  or  with  deeds.  The 
good  opinion  of  those  I  love  is  dear  to  me;  as  for 
the  rest  of  the  world !  "  She  snapped  her  fingers  to 
illustrate  how  little  she  cared. 

"  I  am  a  man  under  a  cloud,  to  be  avoided." 

"  Perhaps  that  cloud  has  a  silver  lining,"  with  a 
gentle  smile.  "  I  do  not  believe  you  did  anything 
wrong,  premeditatively.  All  of  us,  one  time  or  an 
other,  surrender  to  wild  impulse.  Perhaps  in  the 
future  there  awaits  for  me  such  a  moment.  I  can 
not  recollect  the  name  of  Warrington  in  a  cause 
celebre,"  thoughtfully. 

He  could  only  gaze  at  her  dumbly. 

"  Don't  you  suppose  there  is  a  vast  difference 
between  you  and  this  man  Craig?  Could  you  com 
mit  the  petty  crime  of  cheating  at  cards,  of  taking 
advantage  of  a  woman's  kindness,  of  betraying  a 
man's  misfortune?  I  do  not  think  you  could.  No, 
Mr.  Warrington,  I  do  not  care  what  they  say,  on 
board  here  or  elsewhere." 

"  My  name  is  not  Warrington,"  finding  his  voice. 


PARROT  &  CO. 

God  in  heaven,  what  would  happen  when'  she  found 
out  what  his  name  was?  "But  my  first  name  is 
Paul." 

"  Paul.  I  have  had  my  suspicions  that  your  name 
was  not  Warrington.  But  tell  me  nothing  more. 
What  good  would  it  do?  I  did  not  read  that  man's 
letter.  I  merely  noted  your  name  and  his.  You 
doubtless  knew  him  somewhere  in  the  past." 

"  Might  there  not  be  danger  in  your  kindness  to 
me?" 

"In  what  way?" 

"  A  man  under  a  cloud  is  often  reckless  and  des 
perate.  There  is  always  an  invisible  demon  calling 
out  to  him :  What's  the  use  of  being  good  ?  You  are 
the  first  woman  of  your  station  who  has  treated  me 
as  a  human  being;  I  do  not  say  as  an  equal.  You 
have  given  me  back  some  of  my  self-respect.  It 
throws  my  world  upside  down.  It's  a  heady  wine 
for  an  abstemious  man.  Don't  you  realize  that  you 
are  a  beautiful  woman?" 

She  looked  up  into  his  eyes  quickly,  but  she  saw 
nothing  there  indicating  flattery,  only  a  somber 
gravity. 

"  I  should  be  silly  to  deny  it.  I  know  that  had  I 
148 


THE  CUT  DIRECT 

been  a  frump,  the  colonel  would  not  have  snubbed 
me.  I  wonder  why  it  is  that  in  life  beauty 
in  a  woman  is  always  looked  upon  with  suspi 
cion?" 

"  Envy  provokes  that." 

She  resumed  her  inclination  against  the  rail  again. 
"  After  Singapore  it  is  probable  that  we  shall  not 
meet  again.  I  admit,  in  my  world,  I  could  not  walk 
upon  this  free  and  easy  ground.  I  should  have  to 
ask  about  your  antecedents,  what  you  have  done, 
all  about  you,  in  fact.  Then,  we  should  sit  in  judg 
ment." 

"  And  condemn  me,  off-hand.  That  would  be 
perfectly  right." 

"  But  I  might  be  one  of  the  dissenting  judges." 

"  That  is  because  you  are  one  woman  in  a  thou 
sand." 

"  No ;  I  simply  have  a  mind  of  my  own,  and  often 
prefer  to  be  guided  by  it.  I  am  not  a  sheep." 

Silence.  The  lap-lap  of  the  water,  the  long  slow 
rise  and  fall,  and  the  dartling  flying-fish  apparently 
claimed  their  attention. 

But  Warrington  saw  nothing  save  the  danger,  the 
danger  to  himself  and  to  her.  At  any  moment  he 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

might  fling  his  arms  around  her,  without  his  having 
the  power  to  resist.  She  called  to  him  as  nothing  in 
the  world  had  called  before.  But  she  trusted  him, 
and  because  of  this  he  resolutely  throttled  the  recur 
ring  desires.  She  was  right.  He  had  scorned 
what  she  had  termed  as  woman's  instinct.  She  had 
read  him  with  a  degree  of  accuracy.  In  the  eyes  of 
God  he  was  a  good  man,  a  dependable  man ;  but  he 
was  not  impossibly  good.  He  was  human  enough 
to  want  her,  human  enough  to  appreciate  the  danger 
in  which  she  stood  of  him.  He  was  determined  not 
to  fail  her.  When  she  went  back  to  her  own  world 
she  would  carry  an  unsullied  memory  of  him.  But, 
before  God,  he  should  not  have  her. 

"  Why  did  you  do  that?  "  she  asked  whimsically. 

"Do  what?" 

"  Shut  your  jaws  with  a  snap." 

"  I  was  not  conscious  of  the  act." 

"  But  you  were  thinking  strongly  about  some 
thing." 

"  I  was.  Tell  me  about  the  man  who  looks  like 
me."  His  gaze  roved  out  to  sea,  to  the  white  is 
lands  of  vapor  low-lying  in  the  east.  "  In  what  re 
spect  does  he  resemble  me  ?  " 

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THE  CUT  DIRECT 

"  His  hair  is  yellow,  his  eyes  are  blue,  and  he 
smiles  the  same  way  you  do." 

He  felt  the  lump  rise  and  swell  in  his  throat. 

"If  you  stood  before  a  mirror  you  would  see  him. 
But  there  the  resemblance  ends." 

"  You  say  that  sadly.     Why?  " 

"  Did  I  ?  Well,  perhaps  I  was  thinking  strongly, 
too." 

"Is  he  a  man  who  does  things?"  a  note  of 
strained  curiosity  in  his  tones.  Ten  years ! 

"  In  what  way  do  you  mean?  " 

"  Does  he  work  in  the  world,  does  he  invent, 
build,  finance  ?  " 

Mayhap  her  eyes  deceived  her,  but  the  tan  on  his 
face  seemed  less  brown  than  yellow. 

"No;  Mr.  Ellison  is  a  collector  of  paintings,  of 
rugs,  of  rare  old  books  and  china.  He's  a  bit  de 
tached,  as  dreamers  usually  are.  He  has  written  a 
book  of  exquisite  verses.  .  .  .  You  are  smiling," 
she  broke  off  suddenly,  her  eyes  filling  with  cold 
lights. 

"  A  thousand  pardons !  The  thought  was  going 
through  my  head  how  unlike  we  are  indeed.  I  can 
hardly  tell  one  master  from  another,  all  old  books 


PARROT  &  CO. 

look  alike  to  me,  and  the  same  with  china.  I  know 
something  about  rugs;  but  I  couldn't  write  a  jingle 
if  it  was  to  save  me  from  hanging." 

"Do  you  invent,  build,  finance?"  A  bit  of  a 
gulf  had  opened  up  between  them.  Elsa  might  not 
be  prepared  to  marry  Arthur,  but  she  certainly 
would  not  tolerate  a  covert  sneer  in  regard  to  his  ac 
complishments. 

Quietly  and  with  dignity  he  answered :  "  I  have 
built  bridges  in  my  time  over  which  trains  are  pass 
ing  at  this  moment.  I  have  fought  torrents,  and 
floods,  and  hurricanes,  and  myself.  I  have  done  a 
man's  work.  I  had  a  future,  they  said.  But  here 
I  am,  a  subject  of  your  pity." 

She  instantly  relented.  "  But  you  are  young. 
You  can  begin  again." 

"  Not  in  the  sense  you  mean." 

"  And  yet,  you  tell  me  you  are  going  back  home," 

"  Like  a  thief  in.  the  night,"  bitterly. 


XI 

THE   BLUE   FEATHER 

ELS  A  toyed  with  her  emeralds,  apparently 
searching  for  some  flaw.  Like  a  thief  in  the 
night  was  a  phrase  that  rang  unpleasantly  in  her 
ears.  Her  remarkable  interest  in  the  man  was 
neither  to  be  denied  nor  ignored.  In  fact,  draw 
ing  her  first  by  the  resemblance  to  the  man  she 
wanted  to  love  but  could  not,  and  then  by  the  mys 
tery  that  he  had  thrown  about  his  past  simply  by 
guarding  it  closely,  it  would  have  been  far  more  re 
markable  if  she  had  not  been  deeply  interested  in 
him.  But  to-night  she  paused  for  a  moment.  A  lit 
tle  doubt,  like  one  of  those  oblique  flaws  that  ob 
scured  the  clarity  of  the  green  stones,  appeared. 
She  had  always  been  more  or  less  indifferent  to  pub 
lic  opinion,  but  it  had  been  a  careless  thought 
less  indifference;  it  had  not  possessed  the  insolent 
twist  of  the  past  fortnight.  To  receive  the  cut 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

direct  from  a  man  whose  pomposity  and  mental  den 
sity  had  excited  her  wit  and  amusement,  surprised 
her  even  if  it  did  not  hurt.  It  had  rudely  awakened 
her  to  the  fact  that  her  independence  might  be  lead 
ing  her  into  a  labyrinth.  She  was  compelled  to  ad 
mit  that  at  home  she  would  have  avoided  Warring- 
ton,  no  matter  how  deeply  sorry  she  might  have 
been.  His  insistent  warning  against  himself,  how 
ever,  served  to  arouse  nothing  more  than  a  subtle  ob 
stinacy  to  do  just  as  she  pleased.  And  it  pleased  her 
to  talk  to  him;  it  pleased  her  to  trifle  with  the  un 
known  danger. 

Something  new  had  been  born  in  her.  All  her 
life  she  had  gone  about  calmly  and  aloofly,  her  head 
in  the  clouds,  her  feet  on  mountain-tops.  She  had 
never  done  anything  to  arouse  discussion  in  other 
women.  Perhaps  such  a  situation  had  never  con 
fronted  her  until  lately.  She  had  always  looked 
forth  upon  life  through  the  lenses  of  mild  cynicism. 
So  long  as  she  was  rich  she  might,  with  impunity, 
be  as  indiscreet  as  she  pleased.  Her  money  would 
plead  forgiveness  and  toleration.  .  .  .  Elsa 
shrugged.  But  shrugs  do  not  dismiss  problems. 
She  could  have  laughed.  To  have  come  all  this  way 

154 


THE  BLUE  FEATHER 

to  solve  a  riddle,  only  to  find  a  second  more  con 
fusing  than  the  first! 

Like  a  thief  in  the  night.  She  did  not  care  to 
know  what  he  had  done,  not  half  so  much  as  to  learn 
what  he  had  been.  Peculations  of  some  order;  of 
this  she  was  reasonably  sure.  So  why  seek  for  de 
tails,  when  these  might  be  sordid? 

Singapore  would  see  the  end,  and  she  would  be 
come  her  normal  self  again. 

She  clasped  the  necklace  around  her  lovely  throat. 
She  was  dressing  for  dinner,  really  dressing.  An 
impish  mood  filled  her  with  the  irrepressible  desire 
to  shine  in  all  her  splendor  to-night.  Covertly  she 
would  watch  the  eyes  of  mediocrity  widen. 
Hitherto  they  had  seen  her  in  the  simple  white  of 
travel.  To-night  they  should  behold  the  woman 
who  had  been  notable  among  the  beauties  in  Paris, 
Vienna,  Rome,  London;  who  had  not  married  a 
duke  simply  because  his  title  could  not  have  added 
to  the  security  of  her  position,  socially  or  finan 
cially;  who  was  twenty-five  years  of  age  and  pet" 
fectly  content  to  wait  until  she  met  the  man  who 
would  set  to  flight  all  the  doubt  which  kept  her 
heart  unruly  and  unsettled. 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

Into  the  little  mirror  above  the  wash-stand  she 
peered,  with  smiling  and  approving  eyes.  Never 
had  she  looked  better.  There  was  unusual  color 
in  her  cheeks  and  the  clarity  of  her  eyes  spoke  il- 
luminatingly  of  superb  health.  The  tan  on  her  face 
was  not  made  noticeable  in  contrast  by  her  shoulders 
and  arms,  old  ivory  in  tint  and  as  smooth  and  glossy 
as  ancient  Carrara. 

"  You  lovely  creature ! "  murmured  Martha, 
touching  an  arm  with  her  lips. 

"Ami  really  lovely?" 

"  You  would  be  adorable  if  you  had  a  heart." 

"  Perhaps  I  have  one.     Who  knows  ?  " 

"You  are  foolish  to  dress  like  this."  Martha 
finished  the  hooking  of  Elsa's  waist. 

"And  why?" 

"In  the  first  place  there's  nobody  worth  the 
trouble;  and  nobody  but  a  duchess  or  a  .  .  ." 
Martha  paused  embarrassedly. 

"  Or  a  what  ?  An  improper  person  ? "  Elsa 
laughed.  "  My  dear  Martha,  your  comparisons  are 
faulty.  I  know  but  two  duchesses  in  this  wide 
world  who  are  not  dowdies,  and  one  of  them  is  an 
American.  An  improper  person  is  generally  the 

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THE  BLUE  FEATHER 

most  proper,  outside  her  peculiar  environments. 
Can't  you  suggest  something  else?  " 

Martha  searched  but  found  no  suitable  reply. 
One  thing  she  felt  keenly,  a  feverish  impatience  for 
the  boat  to  reach  Singapore  where  Elsa's  folly  must 
surely  end.  She  believed  that  she  saw  more  clearly 
into  the  future  than  Elsa.  Some  one  would  talk, 
and  in  that  strange  inscrutable  fashion  scandal  has 
of  reaching  the  ends  of  the  earth,  the  story  would 
eventually  arrive  home;  and  there,  for  all  the  pro 
fessions  of  friendship,  it  would  find  admittance. 
No  door  is  latched  when  scandal  knocks.  Over 
here  they  were  very  far  from  home,  and  it  was 
natural  that  Elsa  should  view  her  conduct  leniently. 
Martha  readily  appreciated  that  it  was  all  harmless, 
to  be  expressed  by  a  single  word,  whim.  But 
Martha  herself  never  acted  upon  impulse;  she  first 
questioned  what  the  world  would  say.  So  run  the 
sheep. 

For  years  Martha  had  discharged  her  duties,  if 
mechanically  yet  with  a  sense  of  pleasure  and  se 
renity.  At  this  moment  she  was  as  one  pushed  un 
expectedly  to  the  brink  of  a  precipice,  over  which 
the  slightest  misstep  would  topple  her.  The  world 


PARROT  &  CO. 

was  out  of  joint.  Shockingly  bad  wishes  flitted 
through  her  head.  Each  wish  aimed  at  the  dis 
posal,  imaginary  of  course,  of  Warrington:  by  fall 
ing  overboard,  by  being  seized  with  one  of  the 
numerous  plagues,  by  having  a  deadly  fracas  with 
one  of  those  stealthy  Lascars. 

"  I  wish  we  had  gone  to  Italy,"  she  remarked 
finally. 

"  It  would  not  have  served  my  purpose  in  the 
least.  I  should  have  been  dancing  and  playing 
bridge  and  going  to  operas.  I  should  have  had  no 
time  for  thinking." 

"  Thinking !  "  Martha  elevated  her  brows  with  an 
air  that  implied  that  she  greatly  doubted  this  state 
ment. 

"  Yes,  thinking.  It  is  not  necessary  that  I  should 
mope  and  shut  myself  up  in  a  cell,  Martha,  in  order 
to  think.  I  have  finally  come  to  the  end  of  my 
doubts,  if  that  will  gratify  you.  From  now  on  you 
may  rely  upon  one  thing,  to  a  certainty." 

Martha  hesitated  to  put  the  question. 

"  I  am  not  going  to  marry  Arthur.  He  is  charm 
ing,  graceful,  accomplished;  but  I  want  a  man.  I 
should  not  be  happy  with  him.  I  can  twist  him  too 

158 


THE  BLUE  FEATHER 

easily  around  my  finger.  I  admit  that  he  exercises 
over  me  a  certain  indefinable  fascination ;  but  when 
he  is  out  of  sight  it  amounts  to  the  sum  of  all  this 
doddering  and  doubting.  It  is  probable  that  I  shall 
make  an  admirable  old  maid.  Wisdom  has  its  dis 
advantages.  I  might  be  very  happy  with  Arthur, 
were  I  not  so  wise."  She  smiled  again  at  the  re 
flection  in  the  mirror.  "  Now,  let  us  go  and  as 
tonish  the  natives." 

There  was  a  mild  flutter  of  eyelids  as  she  sat 
down  beside  Warrington  and  began  to  chatter  to 
him  in  Italian.  He  made  a  brave  show  of  follow 
ing  her,  but  became  hopelessly  lost  after  a  few 
minutes.  Elsa  spoke  fluently;  twelve  years  had 
elapsed  since  his  last  visit  to  Italy.  He  admitted  his 
confusion,  and  thereafter  it  was  only  occasionally 
that  she  brought  the  tongue  into  the  conversation. 
This  diversion,  which  she  employed  mainly  to  an 
noy  her  neighbors,  was,  in  truth,  the  very  worst 
thing  she  could  have  done.  They  no  longer  con 
jectured  ;  they  assumed. 

Warrington  was  too  strongly  dazzled  by  her 
beauty  to-night  to  be  mentally  keen  or  to  be  observ 
ing  as  was  his  habit.  He  never  spoke  to  his  neigh- 

159 


PARROT  &  CO. 

bor;  he  had  eyes  for  none  but  Elsa,  under  whose 
spell  he  knew  that  he  would  remain  while  he  lived. 
He  was  nothing  to  her;  he  readily  understood. 
She  was  restless  and  lonely,  and  he  amused  her.  So 
be  it.  He  believed  that  there  could  not  be  an  un- 
happier,  more  unfortunate  man  than  himself.  To 
have  been  betrayed  by  the  one  he  had  loved,  second 
to  but  one,  and  to  have  this  knowledge  thrust  upon 
him  after  all  these  years,  was  evil  enough;  but  the 
nadir  of  his  misfortunes  had  been  reached  by  the  ap 
pearance  of  this  unreadable  young  woman.  Of 
what  use  to  warn  her  against  himself,  or  against  the 
possible,  nay,  probable  misconstruction  that  would 
be  given  their  unusual  friendship?  Craig  would 
not  be  idle  with  his  tales.  And  why  had  she  put  on 
all  this  finery  to-night?  To  subjugate  him? 

"  You  are  not  listening  to  a  word  I  am  saying!  " 

"  I  beg  your  pardon !     But  I  warned  you  that  my, 
Italian  was  rusty."     He  pulled  himself  together. 

"  But  I  have  been  rattling  away  in  English ! " 

"  And  I  have  been  wool-gathering." 

"  Not  at  all  complimentary  to  me." 

"  It  is  because  I  am  very  unhappy ;  it  is  because 
Tantalus  and  I  are  brothers." 

160 


THE  BLUE  FEATHER 

"  You  should  have  the  will  to  throw  off  these 
moods." 

"  My  moods,  as  you  call  them,  are  not  like  hats 
and  coats." 

"  I  wish  I  could  make  you  forget." 

"  On  the  contrary,  the  sight  of  you  makes 
memory  all  the  keener." 

He  had  never  spoken  like  that  before.  It  rather 
subdued  her,  made  her  regret  that  she  had  •  sur 
rendered  to  a  vanity  that  was  without  aim  or  di 
rection.  Farthest  from  her  thought  was  conquest 
of  the  man.  She  did  not  wish  to  hurt  him.  She 
was  not  a  coquette. 

After  dinner  he  did  not  suggest  the  usual  prome 
nade.  Instead,  he  excused  himself  and  went  below. 

They  arrived  at  Penang  early  Monday  morning. 
Elsa  decided  that  Warrington  should  take  her  and 
Martha  on  a  personally  conducted  tour  of  the  pretty 
town.  As  they  left  for  shore  he  produced  a  small 
beautiful  blue  feather;  he  gave  it  to  Elsa  with  the 
compliments  of  Rajah;  and  she  stuck  it  in  the 
pugree  of  her  helmet. 

"  This  is  not  from  the  dove  of  peace." 
,161, 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  Its  arch-enemy,  rather,"  he  laughed.  "  I  wish 
I  had  the  ability  to  get  as  furious  as  that  bird.  It 
might  do  me  a  world  of  good." 

"  How  long  is  it  since  you  were  here?  " 

"  Four  years,"  he  answered  without  enthusiasm. 
He  would  not  have  come  ashore  at  all  but  for  the 
fact  that  Elsa  had  ordered  the  expedition. 

There  was  no  inclination  to  explore  the  shops ;  so 
they  hired  a  landau  and  rode  about  town,  climbed 
up  to  the  quaint  temple  in  the  hills,  and  made  a  tour 
of  the  botanical  gardens. 

"  Isn't  it  delicious ! "  murmured  Elsa,  taking  in 
deep  breaths  of  the  warm  spice-laden  air.  Since  her 
visit  to  the  wonderful  gardens  at  Kandy  in  Ceylon, 
she  had  found  a  new  interest  in  plants  and  trees. 

She  thoroughly  enjoyed  the  few  hours  on  land, 
even  to  the  powwow  Warrington  had  with  the  un 
scrupulous  driver,  who,  at  the  journey's  end,  substi 
tuted  one  price  for  another,  despite  his  original  bar 
gain.  It  was  only  a  matter  of  two  shillings,  but 
Warrington  stood  firm.  It  had  of  necessity  become 
a  habit  with  him  to  haggle  and  then  to  stand  firm 
upon  the  bargain  made.  There  had  been  times 
when  half  an  hour's  haggling  had  meant  breakfast 

162 


THE  BLUE  FEATHER 

or  no  breakfast.  It  never  entered  into  his  mind 
what  Elsa's  point  of  view  might  be.  The  average 
woman  would  have  called  him  over-thrifty.  All 
this  noise  over  two  shillings!  But  to  Elsa  it  was 
only  the  opening  of  another  door  into  this  strange 
man's  character.  What  others  would  have  ac 
cepted  as  penuriousness  she  recognized  as  a  sense  of 
well-balanced  justice.  Most  men,  she  had  found, 
were  afflicted  with  the  vanity  of  spending,  and  per 
mitted  themselves  to  be  imposed  on  rather  than 
have  others  think  that  money  meant  anything  to 
them.  Arthur  would  have  paid  the  difference  at 
once  rather  than  have  stood  on  the  pier  wrangling. 
As  they  waited  for  the  tender  that  was  to  con 
vey  them  back  to  the  ship,  Elsa  observed  a  powerful 
middle-aged  man,  gray-haired,  hawk-faced,  steel- 
eyed,  watching  her  companion  intently.  Then  his 
boring  gaze  traveled  over  her,  from  her  canvas- 
shoes  to  her  helmet.  There  was  something  so 
baldly  appraising  in  the  look  that  a  flush  of  anger 
surged  into  her  cheeks.  The  man  turned  and  said 
something  to  his  companion,  who  shrugged  and 
smiled.  Impatiently  Elsa  tugged  at  Warrington's 
sleeve. 

163 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  Who  is  that  man  over  there  by  the  railing?  "  she 
asked  in  a  very  low  voice.  "  He  looks  as  if  he  knew 
you."  . 

"  Knew  me  ? "  Warrington  echoed.  The  mo 
ment  he  had  been  dreading  had  come.  Some  one 
who  knew  him!  He  turned  his  head  slowly,  and 
Elsa,  who  had  not  dropped  her  hand,  could  feel  the 
muscles  of  his  arm  stiffen  under  the  sleeve.  He 
held  the  stranger's  eye  defiantly  for  a  space.  The 
latter  laughed  insolently  if  silently.  It  was  more 
for  Elsa's  sake  than  for  his  own  that  Warrington 
allowed  the  other  to  stare  him  down.  Alone,  he 
would  have  surrendered  to  the  Berserk  rage  that 
urged  him  to  leap  across  the  intervening  space  and 
annihilate  the  man,  to  crush  him  with  his  bare  hands 
until  he  screamed  for  the  mercy  he  had  always  de 
nied  others.  The  flame  passed,  leaving  him  as  cold 
as  ashes.  "  I  shall  tell  you  who  he  is  later ;  not 
here." 

i  For  the  second  time  since  that  night  on  the  Irra- 
waddy,  Elsa  recorded  a  disagreeable  sensation.  It 
proved  to  be  transitory,  but  at  the  time  it  served  to 
establish  a  stronger  doubt  in  regard  to  her  inde 
pendence,  so  justifiable  in  her  own  eyes.  It  might 

164 


THE  BLUE  FEATHER 

be  insidiously  leading  her  too  far  away  from  the 
stepping-off  place.  The  unspoken  words  in  those 
hateful  eyes!  The  man  knew  Warrington,  knew 
him  perhaps  as  a  malefactor,  and  judged  his  as 
sociates  accordingly.  She  thus  readily  saw  the 
place  she  occupied  in  the  man's  estimation.  She  ex 
perienced  a  shiver  of  dread  as  she  observed  that  he 
stepped  on  board  the  tender.  She  even  heard  him 
call  back  to  his  friend  to  expect  him  in  from  Singa 
pore  during  the  second  week  in  March.  But  the 
dread  went  away,  and  pride  and  anger  grew  instead. 
All  the  way  back  to  the  ship  she  held  her  chin  in  the 
air,  and  from  time  to  time  her  nostrils  dilated. 
That  look!  If  she  had  been  nearer  she  was  certain 
that  she  would  have  struck  him  across  the  face. 

"  There  will  be  no  one  up  in  the  bow,"  said  War 
rington.  "  Will  you  go  up  there  with  me  ?  " 

After  a  moment's  hesitation,  she  nodded. 

The  Lascars,  busy  with  the  anchor-chains,  de 
murred;  but  a  word  and  a  gesture  from  the  Sahib 
who  had  turned  the  hose  on  a  drunken  man  con 
vinced  them  that  the  two  would  not  be  in  the  way. 
A  clatter  of  steel  against  steel  presently  followed, 
the  windlass  whined  and  rattled,  and  Elsa  saw  the 

165 


PARROT  &  CO. 

anchor  rise  slowly  from  the  deeps,  bringing  up  a 
blur  of  muddy  water;  and  blobs  of  pale  clay  dripped 
from  the  anchor-flukes.  A  moment  after  she  felt 
the  old  familiar  throb  under  her  feet,  and  the  ship 
moved  slowly  out  of  the  bay. 

"  Do  you  know  that  that  man  came  aboard?  " 
"  I  know  it."  The  wide  half-circle  of  cocoanut 
palms  grew  denser  and  lower  as  they  drew  away. 
"  This  is  the  story.  It's  got  to  be  told.  I  should 
have  avoided  it  if  it  had  been  possible.  He  is  the 
owner  of  the  plantation.  Oh,  I  rather  expected 
something  like  this.  It's  my  run  of  luck.  I  was 
just  recovering  from  the  fever.  God  knows  how 
he  found  out,  but  he  did.  It  was  during  the  rains. 
He  told  me  to  get  out  that  night.  Didn't  care 
whether  I  died  on  the  road  or  not.  I  should  have 
but  for  my  boy  James.  The  man  sent  along  with 
us  a  poor  discarded  woman,  of  whom  he  had  grown 
tired.  She  died  when  we  reached  town.  I  had 
hardly  any  money.  He  refused  to  pay  me  for  the 
last  two  months,  about  fifty  pounds.  There  was  no 
redress  for  me.  There  was  no  possible  way  I  could 
get  back  at  him.  Miss  Chetwood,  I  took  money 
that  did  not  belong  to  me.  It  went  over  gaming- 

166 


THE  BLUE  FEATHER 

tables.  Craig.  I  ran  away.  Craig  knows  and  this 
man  Mallow  knows.  Can  you  not  see  the  wisdom 
of  giving  me  a  wide  berth?  " 

"  Oh,  I  am  sorry !  "  she  cried. 

"  Thanks.  But  you  see :  I  am  an  outcast.  To 
night,  not  a  soul  on  board  will  be  in  ignorance  of 
who  I  am  and  what  I  have  done.  Trust  Craig  and 
Mallow  for  that.  Thursday  we  shall  be  in  Singa 
pore.  You  must  not  speak  to  me  again.  Give 
them  to  understand  that  you  have  found  me  out, 
that  I  imposed  on  your  kindness." 

"  That  I  will  not  do." 

"Act  as  you  please.  There  are  empty  chairs  at 
the  second-class  table,  among  the  natives.  And 
now,  good-by.  The  happiest  hours  in  ten  long 
years  are  due  to  you."  He  took  off  his  helmet  and 
stepped  aside  for  her  to  pass.  She  held  out  her 
hand,  but  he  shook  his  head.  "  Don't  make  it 
harder  for  me." 

"  Mr.  Warrington,  I  am  not  a  child !  " 

"To  me  you  have  been  the  Angel  of  Kindness; 
and  the  light  in  your  face  I  shall  always  see.  Please 
go  now." 

"  Very  well."  A  new  and  unaccountable  pain 
167 


PARROT  &  CO. 

filled  her  throat  and  forced  her  to  carry  her  head 
high.  "  I  can  find  my  way  back  to  the  other  deck." 
He  saw  her  disappear  down  the  first  ladder,  re 
appear  up  the  other,  mingle  with  the  passengers  and 
vanish.  He  then  went  forward  to  the  prow  and 
stared  down  at  the  water,  wondering  if  it  held  rest 
or  pain  or  what. 


XII 

THE   GAME   OF   GOSSIP 

DURING  the  concluding  days  of  the  voyage 
Elsa  had  her  meals  served  on  deck.  She 
kept  Martha  with  her  continually,  promenaded  only 
early  in  the  morning  and  at  night  while  the  other 
passengers  were  at  dinner.  This  left  a  clear  deck. 
She  walked  quickly,  her  arm  in  Martha's,  literally 
propelling  her  along,  never  spoke  unless  spoken  to, 
and  then  answered  in  monosyllables.  Her  thoughts 
flew  to  a  thousand  and  one  things :  home,  her  father, 
episodes  from  school-life;  toward  anything  and 
everywhere  like  a  land-bird  lost  at  sea,  futilely  and 
vainly  in  the  endeavor  to  shut  out  the  portrait  of 
the  broken  man.  In  the  midst  of  some  imaginary 
journey  to  the  Sabine  Hills  she  would  find  herself 
asking :  What  was  he  doing,  of  what  was  he  think 
ing,  where  would  he  go  and  what  would  he  do? 
She  hated  night  which,  no  longer  offering  sleep, 
provided  nothing  in  lieu  of  it,  and  compelled  her 
to  remain  in  the  stuffy  cabin.  She  was  afraid. 

169 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Early  Wednesday  morning  she  passed  Craig  and 
Mallow;  but  the  two  had  wit  enough  to  step  aside 
for  her  and  to  speak  only  with  their  eyes.  She  filled 
Craig  with  unadulterated  fear.  Never  had  he  met 
a  woman  such  as  this  one.  He  warned  Mallow  at 
the  beginning,  without  explaining  in  detail,  that  she 
was  fearless  and  dangerous.  And,  of  course,  Mal 
low  laughed  and  dragged  along  the  gambler  when 
ever  he  found  a  chance  to  see  Elsa  at  close  range. 

"  There's  a  woman.  Gad !  that  beach-comber  has 
taste." 

"  I  tell  you  to  look  out  for  her,"  Craig  warned 
again.  "  I  know  what  I'm  talking  about." 

"  What's  she  done ;  slapped  your  face  ?  " 

"  That  kind  of  woman  doesn't  slap.  Damn  it, 
Mallow,  she  rammed  a  hat-pin  into  me,  if  you  will 
know !  Keep  out  of  her  way." 

Mallow  whistled.  "  Oho !  You  probably  acted 
like  a  fool.  Drinking?  " 

Craig  nodded  affirmatively. 

"  Thought  so.  Even  a  Yokohama  bar-maid  will 
fight  shy  of  a  boozer.  I'm  going  to  meet  her  when 
we  get  to  Singapore,  or  my  name's  not  Mallow." 

Craig  laughed  with  malice.  "  I  hope  she  sticks 
170 


THE  GAME  OF  GOSSIP 

the  pin  into  your  throat.  It  will  take  some  of  the 
brag  out  of  you.  Think  because  you've  got  pic 
turesque  gray  hair  and  are  as  strong  as  a  bull,  that 
all  the  women  are  just  pining  for  you.  Say,  let's 
go  aft  and  hunt  up  the  chap.  I  understand  he's 
taken  up  quarters  in  the  second-cabin." 

"  Doesn't  want  to  run  into  me.  All  right ;  come 
on.  We'll  stir  him  up  a  little  and  have  some  fun." 

They  found  Warrington  up  in  the  stern,  sitting 
on  the  deck,  surrounded  by  squatting  Lascars,  some 
Chinamen  and  a  solitary  white  man,  the  chief  en 
gineer's  assistant.  The  center  of  interest  was 
Rajah,  who  was  performing  his  tricks.  Among 
these  was  one  that  the  bird  rarely  could  be  made 
to  perform,  the  threading  of  beads.  He  despised 
this  act  as  it  entailed  the  putting  of  a  blunt  needle 
in  his  beak.  He  flung  it  aside  each  time  Warring- 
ton  handed  it  to  him.  But  ever  his  master  patiently 
returned  it.  At  length,  recognizing  that  the  affair 
might  be  prolonged  indefinitely,  Rajah  put  two 
beads  on  the  thread  and  tossed  it  aside.  The 
Lascars  jabbered,  the  Chinamen  grinned,  and  the 
chief  engineer's  assistant  swore  approvingly. 

"  How  much'll  you  take  for  him  ?  " 
171 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  He's  not  for  sale,"  answered  Warrington. 

The  parrot  shrilled  and  waddled  back  to  his  cage. 

"  Fine  business  for  a  whole  man !  " 

Warrington  looked  up  to  meet  the  cynical  eyes  of 
Mallow.  He  took  out  his  cutty  and  fired  it. 
Otherwise  he  did  not  move  nor  let  his  gaze  swerve. 
Mallow,  towering  above  him,  could  scarcely  resist 
the  temptation  to  stir  his  enemy  with  the  toe  of  his 
boot.  His  hatred  for  Warrington  was  not  wholly 
due  to  his  brutal  treatment  of  him.  Mallow  always 
took  pleasure  in  dominating  those  under  him  by 
fear.  Warrington  had  done  his  work  well.  He 
had  always  recognized  Mallow  as  his  employer,  but 
in  no  other  capacity :  he  had  never  offered  to  smoke 
a  pipe  with  him,  or  to  take  a  hand  at  cards,  or  split 
a  bottle.  It  had  not  been  done  offensively;  but  in 
this  attitude  Mallow  had  recognized  his  manager's 
disapproval  of  him,  an  inner  consciousness  of  su 
periority  in  birth  and  education.  He  had  with  su 
preme  satisfaction  ordered  him  off  the  plantation 
that  memorable  night.  Weak  as  the  man  had  been 
in  body,  there  had  been  no  indication  of  weakness 
in  spirit. 

Occultly  Warrington  read  the  desire  in  the 
172 


THE  GAME  OF  GOSSIP 

other's  eyes.  "  I  shouldn't  do  it,  Mallow,"  he  said. 
"  I  shouldn't.  Nothing  would  please  me  better 
than  to  have  a  good  excuse  to  chuck  you  over  the 
rail.  Upon  a  time  you  had  the  best  of  me.  I  was 
a  sick  man  then.  I'm  in  tolerable  good  health  at 
present" 

"  You  crow,  I  could  break  you  like  a  pipe-stem." 
Mallow  rammed  his  hands  into  his  coat  pockets, 
scowling  contemptuously.  He  weighed  fully  twenty 
pounds  more  than  Warrington. 

Crow !  Warrington  shrugged.  In  the  East  crow 
is  a  rough  synonym  for  thief.  "  You're  at  liberty 
to  return  to  your  diggings  forward  with  that  im 
pression,"  he  replied  coolly.  "  When  we  get  to 
Singapore,"  rising  slowly  to  his  height  until  his  eyes 
were  level  with  Mallow's,  "  when  we  get  to  Singa 
pore,  I'm  going  to  ask  you  for  that  fifty  pounds, 
earned  in  honest  labor." 

"  And  if  I  decline  to  pay?  "  truculently. 

"  We'll  talk  that  over  when  we  reach  port. 
Now,"  roughly,  "  get  out.  There  won't  be  any  bait 
ing  done  to-day,  thank  you." 

The  chief  engineer's  assistant,  a  stocky,  muscular 
young  Scot,  stepped  forward.  He  knew  Mallow. 

173 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  If  there  is,  Mr.  Warrington,  I'm  willing  to  have  a 
try  at  losing  my  job." 

"  Cockalorem !  "  jeered  Mallow.  Craig  touched 
his  sleeve,  but  he  threw  off  the  hand  roughly.  He 
was  one  of  the  best  rough  and  tumble  fighters  in  the 
Straits  Settlements.  "  You  thieving  beach-comber, 
I  don't  want  to  mess  up  the  deck  with  you,  but  I'll 
cut  your  comb  for  you  when  we  get  to  port." 

Warrington  laughed  insolently  and  picked  up  the 
parrot-cage.  "  I'll  bring  the  comb.  In  fact,  I  al 
ways  carry  it."  Not  a  word  to  Craig,  not  a  glance 
in  his  direction.  Warrington  stepped  to  the  com- 
panionway  and  went  below. 

The  chief  engineer's  assistant,  whistling  Bide 
Awee,  sauntered  forward. 

Craig  could  not  resist  grinning  at  Mallow's  dis 
comfiture.  "  Wouldn't  break,  eh  ?  " 

"  Shut  your  mouth !  The  sneaking  dock-wal 
loper,  I'll  take  the  starch  out  of  him  when  we  land ! 
Always  had  that  high  and  mighty  air.  Wants  folks 
to  think  he's  a  gentleman." 

"  He  was  once,"  said  Craig.  "  No  use  giving  you 
advice;  but  he's  not  a  healthy  individual  to  bait. 
I'm  no  kitten  when  it  comes  to  scrapping;  but  I 


THE  GAME  OF  GOSSIP 

haven't  any  desire  to  mix  things  with  him."  The 
fury  of  the  man  who  had  given  him  the  ducking 
was  still  vivid.  He  had  been  handled  as  a  terrier 
handles  a  rat. 

"Bah!" 

"  Bah  as  much  as  you  please.  I  picked  you  out 
of  the  gutter  one  night  in  Rangoon,  after  roughing 
it  with  half  a  dozen  Chinamen,  and  saved  your  wad. 
I've  not  your  reach  or  height,  but  I  can  lay  about 
some.  He'll  kill  you.  And  why  not?  He 
wouldn't  be  any  worse  off  than  he  is." 

"  I  tell  you  he's  yellow.  And  with  a  hundred- 
thousand  in  his  clothes,  he'll  be  yellower  still." 

A  hundred  thousand.  Craig  frowned  and  gazed 
out  to  sea.  He  had  forgotten  all  about  the  wind 
fall.  "  Let's  go  and  have  a  peg,"  he  suggested  sur 
lily;. 

Immediately  upon  obtaining  her  rooms  at  Raffles 
Hotel  in  Singapore  (and  leaving  Martha  there  to 
await  the  arrival  of  the  luggage,  an  imposing  collec 
tion  of  trunks  and  boxes  and  kit-bags),  Elsa  went 
down  to  the  American  Consulate,  which  had  its  of 
fices  in  the  rear  of  the  hotel.  She  walked  through 

175 


PARROT  &  CO. 

the  outer  office  and  stood  silently  at  the  consul-gen 
eral's  elbow,  waiting  for  him  to  look  up.  She  was 
dressed  in  white,  and  in  the  pugree  of  her  helmet 
was  the  one  touch  of  color,  Rajah's  blue  feather. 
With  a  smile  she  watched  the  stubby  pen  crawl  over 
some  papers,  ending  at  length  with  a  flourish,  dig 
nified  and  characteristic.  The  consul-general  turned 
his  head.  His  kindly  face  had  the  settled  expression 
of  indulgent  inquiry.  The  expression  changed 
swiftly  into  one  of  delight. 

"  Elsa  Chetwood !  "  he  cried,  seizing  her  hands. 
"  Well,  well !  I  am  glad  to  see  you.  Missed  you 
when  you  passed  through  to  Ceylon.  Good  gra 
cious,  what  a  beautiful  woman  you've  turned  out  to 
be !  Sit  down,  sit  down !  "  He  pushed  her  into  a 
chair.  "Well,  well!  When  I  saw  you  last  you 
were  nineteen." 

"  What  a  frightful  memory  you  have !  And  I 
was  going  to  my  first  ball.  You  used  the  same  ad 
jective." 

"Is  there  a  better  one?  I'll  use  it  if  there  is. 
You've  arrived  just  in  time.  I  am  giving  a  little 
dinner  to  the  consuls  and  their  wives  to-night,  and 
you  will  add  just  the  right  touch;  for  we  are  all  a 

176 


THE  GAME  OF  GOSSIP 

little  gray  at  the  temples  and  some  of  us  are  a  trifle 
bald.  You  see,  I've  an  old  friend  from  India  in 
town  to-day,  and  I've  asked  him,  too.  Your  appear 
ance  evens  up  matters." 

"  Oh ;  then  I'm  just  a  filler-in!  " 

"  Heavens,  no !  You're  the  most  important  per 
son  of  the  lot,  though  Colonel  Knowlton  .  .  ." 

"  Colonel  Knowlton !  "  exclaimed  Elsa. 

"  That's  so,  by  George !  Stupid  of  me.  You 
came  down  on  the  same  boat.  Fine!  You  know 
each  other." 

Elsa  straightened  her  lips  with  some  difficulty. 
She  possessed  the  enviable  faculty  of  instantly  form 
ing  in  her  mind  pictures  of  coming  events.  The  lit 
tle  swelling  veins  in  the  colonel's  nose  were  as  plain 
to  her  mind's  eye  as  if  he  really  stood  before  her. 
"  Have  him  take  me  in  to  dinner,"  she  suggested. 

"Just  what  I  was  thinking  of,"  declared  the  un 
suspecting  man.  "If  any  one  can  draw  out  the 
colonel,  it  will  be  you." 

"  I'll  do  my  best."  Elsa's  mind  was  full  of  rol 
licking  malice. 

Contemplatively  he  said :  "  So  you've  been  doing 
the  Orient  alone?  You  are  like  your  father  in  that 

177 


PARROT  &  CO. 

way.  He  was  never  afraid  of  anything.  Your 
mental  make-up,  too,  I'll  wager  is  like  his.  Finest 
man  in  the  world." 

"  Wasn't  he  ?  How  I  wish  he  could  have  always 
been  with  me!  We  were  such  good  comrades. 
They  do  say  I  am  like  father.  But  why  is  it,  every 
one  seems  appalled  that  I  should  travel  over  here 
without  male  escort  ?  " 

"  The  answer  lies  in  your  mirror,  Elsa.  Your 
old  nurse  Martha  is  no  real  protection." 

"  Are  men  so  bad,  then  ?  " 

"  They  are  less  restrained.  The  heat,  the  tre 
mendous  distances,  the  lack  of  amusements,  are  per 
haps  responsible.  The  most  difficult  thing  in  the 
world  to  amuse  is  man.  By  the  way,  here's  a  packet 
of  letters  for  you." 

"Thanks."  Elsa  played  with  the  packet,  som 
berly  eying  the  superscriptions.  The  old  disorder 
came  back  into  her  mind.  Three  of  the  letters  were 
from  Arthur.  She  dreaded  to  open  them. 

"  Now,  I'll  expect  you  to  come  to  the  apartments 
and  have  tea  at  five." 

"  Be  glad  to.  Only,  don't  have  any  one  else.  I 
just  want  to  visit  and  talk  as  I  used  to." 

178 


THE  GAME  OF  GOSSIP 

"  I  promise  not  to  invite  anybody." 

"I  must  be  going,  then.  I'm  not  sure  of  my 
tickets  to  Hongkong." 

"  Go  straight  to  the  German  Lloyd  office.  The 
next  P.  &  O.  boat  is  booked  full.  Don't  bother  to 
go  to  Cook's.  Everybody's  on  the  way  home  now. 
Go  right  to  the  office.  I'll  have  my  boy  show  you 
the  way.  Chong!"  he  called.  A  bright-eyed 
young  Chinese  came  in  quickly  and  silently  from 
the  other  room.  "  Show  lady  German  Lloyd  of 
fice.  All  same  quick." 

"  All  light.     Lady  come." 

"  Until  tea." 

In  the  outer  office  she  paused  for  a  moment  or 
so  to  look  at  the  magazines  and  weeklies  from  home. 
The  Chinese  boy,  grinning  pleasantly,  peered  curi 
ously  at  Elsa's  beautiful  hands.  She  heard  some 
one  enter,  and  quite  naturally  glanced  up.  The 
newcomer  was  Mallow.  He  stared  at  her,  smiled 
familiarly  and  lifted  his  helmet. 

Elsa,  with  cold  unflickering  eyes,  offered  his  greet 
ing  no  recognition  whatever.  The  man  felt  that  she 
was  looking  through  him,  inside  of  him,  searching 
out  all  the  dark  corners  of  his  soul.  He  dropped 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

his  gaze,  confused.  Then  Elsa  calmly  turned  to 
the  boy. 

"  Come,  Chong." 

There  was  something  in  the  manner  of  her  exit 
that  infinitely  puzzled  him.  It  was  the  insolence 
of  the  well-bred,  but  he  did  not  know  it.  To  off 
set  his  chagrin  and  confusion,  he  put  on  his  helmet 
and  passed  into  the  private  office.  She  was  out  of 
his  range  of  understanding. 

Mallow  was  an  American  by  birth  but  had  grown 
up  in  the  Orient,  hardily.  In  his  youth  he  had  been 
beaten  and  trampled  upon,  and  now  that  he  had  be 
come  rich  in  copra  (the  dried  kernels  of  cocoanuts 
from  which  oil  is  made),  he  in  his  turn  beat  and 
trampled.  It  was  the  only  law  he  knew.  He  was 
without  refinement,  never  having  come  into  contact 
with  that  state  of  being  long  enough  to  fall  under 
its  influence.  He  was  a  shrewd  bargainer;  and  any 
who  respected  him  did  so  for  two  reasons,  his 
strength  and  his  wallet.  Such  flattery  sufficed  his 
needs.  He  was  unmarried ;  by  inclination,  perhaps, 
rather  than  by  failure  to  find  an  agreeable  mate. 
There  were  many  women  in  Penang  and  Singapore 
who  would  have  snapped  him  up,  had  the  oppor- 

180 


THE  GAME  OF  GOSSIP 

X 

mnity  offered,  despite  the  fact  that  they  knew  his 
history  tolerably  well.  Ordinarily,  when  in  Penang 
and  Singapore,  he  behaved  himself,  drank  circum 
spectly  and  shunned  promiscuous  companions.  But 
when  he  did  drink  heartily,  he  was  a  man  to  beware 
of. 

He  hailed  the  consul-general  cordially  and  offered 
him  one  of  his  really  choice  cigars,  which  was  ac 
cepted. 

"  I  say,  who  was  that  young  woman  who  just 
went  out  ?  " 

The  consul-general  laid  down  the  cigar.  The 
question  itself  was  harmless  enough;  it  was  Mal 
low's  way  of  clothing  it  he  resented.  "  Why?  "  he 
asked. 

"  She's  a  stunner.  Just  curious  if  you  knew  her, 
that's  all.  We  came  down  on  the  same  boat. 
Hanged  if  I  shouldn't  like  to  meet  her." 

"  You  met  her  on  board  ?  " 

"  I  can't  say  that.  Rather  uppish  on  the  steamer. 
But,  do  you  know  her?  "  eagerly. 

"I  do.  More  than  that,  I  have  always  known 
her.  She  is  the  daughter  of  the  late  General  Chet- 
wood,  one  of  the  greatest  civil-engineers  of  our  time. 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

When  he  died  he  left  her  several  millions.  She  is  a 
remarkable  young  woman,  a  famous  beauty,  known 
favorably  in  European  courts,  and  I  can't  begin  to 
tell  you  how  many  other  accomplishments  she  has." 

"  Well,  stump  me !  "  returned  Mallow.  "  Is  that 
all  straight?" 

"  Every  word  of  it,"  with  a  chilliness  that  did 
not  escape  a  man  even  so  impervious  as  Mallow. 

"  Is  she  a  free-thinker?  " 

"  What  the  devil  is  that?     What  do  you  mean?  " 

"  Only  this,  if  she's  all  you  say  she  is,  why  does 
she  pick  out  an  absconder  for  a  friend,  a  chap  who 
dare  not  show  his  fiz  in  the  States  ?  I  heard  the  tale 
from  a  man  once  employed  in  his  office  back  in  New 
York.  A  beach-comber,  a  dock-walloper,  if  there 
ever  was  one." 

"  Mallow,  you'll  have -to  explain  that  instantly." 

"  Hold  your  horses,  my  friend.  What  I'm  telling 
you  is  on  the  level.  She's  been  hobnobbing  with  the 
fellow  all  the  way  down  from  the  Irrawaddy,  so  I'm 
told.  Never  spoke  to  any  one  else.  Made  him  sit 
at  her  side  at  table  and  jabbered  Italian  at  him,  as 
if  she  didn't  want  others  to  know  what  she  was  talk 
ing  about.  I  know  the  man.  Fired  him  from  my 

182 


THE  GAME  OF  GOSSIP 

plantation,  when  I  found  out  what  he  was.  Can't 
recall  his  name  just  now,  but  he  is  known  out  here 
as  Warrington ;  Parrot  &  Co." 

The  consul-general  was  genuinely  shocked. 

"  You  can't  blame  me  for  thinking  things,"  went 
on  Mallow.  "  What  man  wouldn't  ?  Ask  her 
about  Warrington.  You'll  find  that  I'm  telling  the 
truth,  all  right." 

"If  you  are,  then  she  has  made  one  of  those  mis 
takes  women  make  when  they  travel  alone.  I  shall 
see  her  at  tea  and  talk  to  her.  But  I  do  not  thank 
you,  Mallow,  for  telling  me  this.  A  finer,  loyaler- 
hearted  girl  doesn't  live.  She  might  have  been  kind 
out  of  sympathy." 

Mallow  bit  off  the  tip  of  his  cigar.  "  He's  a 
handsome  beggar,  if  you  want  to  know." 

"  I  resent  that  tone.  Better  drop  the  subject  be 
fore  I  lose  my  temper.  I'l  have  your  papers  ready 
for  you  in  the  morning."  The  consul-general 
caught  up  his  pen  savagely  to  indicate  that  the  in 
terview  was  at  an  end. 

"  All  right,"  said  Mallow  good-naturedly.  "  I 
meant  no  harm.  Just  naturally  curious.  Can't 
blame  me." 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

"  I'm  not  blaming  you.  But  it  has  disturbed  me, 
and  I  wish  to  be  alone  to  think  it  over." 

Mallow  lounged  out,  rather  pleased  with  himself. 
His  greatest  pleasure  in  life  was  in  making  others 
uncomfortable. 

The  consul-general  bit  the  wooden  end  of  his  pen 
and  chewed  the  splinters  of  cedar.  He  couldn't 
deny  that  it  was  like  Elsa  to  pick  up  some  derelict 
for  her  benefactions.  But  to  select  a  man  who  was 
probably  wanted  by  the  American  police  was  a 
frightful  misfortune.  Women  liad  no  business  to 
travel  alone.  It  was  all  very  well  when  they  toured 
in  parties  of  eight  or  ten;  but  for  a  charming  young 
woman  like  Elsa,  attended  by  a  spinster  companion 
who  doubtless  dared  not  offer  advice,  it  was  de 
cidedly  wrong.  And  thereupon  he  determined  that 
her  trip  to  Yokohama  should  find  her  well  guarded. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  a  pleasant  voice. 

The  consul-general  had  been  so  deeply  occupied 
by  his  worry  that  he  had  not  noticed  the  entrance 
of  the  speaker.  He  turned  impatiently.  He  saw 
a  tall  blond  man,  bearded  and  tanned,  with  fine  clear 
blue  eyes  that  met  his  with  the  equanimity  of  the 
fearless. 


XIII 

AFTER   TEN    YEARS 

THE  consul-general  had,  figuratively,  a  com 
plete  assortment  of  masks,  such  as  any  thor 
ough  play-actor  might  have,  in  more  or  less  constant 
demand,  running  the  gamut  from  comedy  to  tragedy. 
Some  of  these  masks  grew  dusty  between  ships,  but 
could  quickly  be  made  presentable.  Sometimes, 
when  large  touring  parties  came  into  port,  he  con 
fused  his  masks,  being  by  habit  rather  an  absent- 
minded  man.  But  he  possessed  a  great  fund  of  hu 
mor,  and  these  mistakes  gave  him  laughable  recol 
lections  for  days. 

He  saw  before  him  an  exquisite,  as  the  ancient 
phrase  goes,  backed  by  no  indifferent  breed  of  man 
hood.  Thus,  he  believed  that  here  was  a  brief  re 
spite  (as  between  acts)  in  which  the  little  plastic 
hypocrisies  could  be  laid  aside.  The  pleasant  smile 
on  his  high-bred  face  was  all  his  own. 

"And  what  may  I  do  for  you,  sir?"     He  ex- 

185 


PARROT  &  CO. 

pected  to  be  presented  with  letters  of  introduction, 
and  to  while  away  a  half-hour  in  the  agreeable  dis 
cussion  of  mutual  acquaintance. 

"  I  should  like  a  few  minutes'  private  talk  with 
you,"  began  the  well-dressed  stranger.  "  May  I 
close  the  door  ?  "  The  consul-general,  with  a  sense 
of  disappointment,  nodded.  The  blond  man  re 
turned  and  sat  down.  "  I  don't  know  how  to  be 
gin,  but  I  want  you  to  copy  this  cablegram  and  send 
it  under  your  own  name.  Here  it  is ;  read  it." 

So  singular  a  request  filled  the  consul-general  with 
astonishment.  Rather  mechanically  he  accepted  the 
slip  of  paper,  adjusted  his  glasses,  and  read  — 

"  The  Andes  Construction  Company,  New  York :  A  former 
employee  of  yours  wishes  to  make  a  restitution  of  eight  thou 
sand  dollars,  with  interest  to  date.  He  dares  not  give  his 
name  to  me,  but  he  wishes  to  learn  if  this  belated  restitution 
will  lift  the  ban  against  his  returning  to  America  and  re 
suming  his  citizenship.  Reply  collect." 

"  This  is  an  extraordinary  request  to  make  to  me, 
sir." 

"  I  know  it." 

"  But  why  bring  it  to  me  ?  " 

"  Could  I  possibly  offer  that  to  the  cable  opera 
tor?  Without  name  or  address?  No;  I  could  not 

186 


AFTER  TEN  YEARS 

do  it  without  being  subjected  to  a  thousand  ques 
tions,  none  of  which  I  should  care  to  answer.  So  I 
came  to  you.  Passing  through  your  hands,  no  one 
will  question  it.  Will  you  do  this  favor  for  a  poor 
unfortunate  devil  ?  " 

Oddly  enough,  the  other  could  not  get  away  from 
his  original  impression.  The  clothes,  the  way  the 
man  wore  them,  the  clarity  of  his  eyes,  the  abundant 
health  that  was  expressed  by  the  tone  of  the  skin, 
derided  such  a  possibility  as  the  cablegram  made 
manifest. 

He  forced  the  smile  bade  to  his  lips.  "  Are  you 
sure  you're  not  hoaxing  me  ?  " 

"  No.  I  am  the  victim  of  the  hoax,"  enigmat 
ically.  "  If  one  may  call  the  quirks  of  fate  by  the 
name  of  hoax,"  the  stranger  added.  "  Will  you 
send  it?" 

The  years  he  had  spent  in  the  consular  service 
had  never  brought  before  him  a  situation  of  this  or 
der.  He  did  not  know  exactly  what  to  do.  He 
looked  out  of  the  window,  into  the  hotel-court,  at 
the  sky  which  presently  would  become  overcast  with 
the  daily  rain-clouds.  By  and  by  he  remem 
bered  the  man  waiting  patiently  at  his  elbow. 

187 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  What  is  your  name  ?  " 

"  My  real  name,  or  the  one  by  which  I  am  known 
here?" 

"  Your  real  one." 

"  I'd  rather  not  give  that  until  I  hear  from  New 
York." 

"Well,  that  is  reasonable." 

"  I  am  known  out  here  by  the  name  of  Warring- 
ton." 

Warrington.  The  puzzlement  vanished  from  the 
older  man's  face,  and  his  eyes  became  alert,  renew 
ing  from  another  angle  their  investigation  of  the 
stranger.  Warrington.  So  this  was  the  man? 
He  could  understand  now.  Who  could  blame  a  girl 
for  making  a  mistake  when  he,  a  seasoned  veteran, 
had  been  beguiled  by  the  outward  appearance  of  the 
man?  Mallow  was  right.  He  was  a  handsome 
beggar. 

"  I  promise  to  send  this  upon  one  condition." 

"  I  accept  without  question,"  readily. 

"  It  is  that  you  must  keep  away  from  Elsa  Chet- 
wood,  now  and  hereafter.  You  made  her  acquaint 
ance  under  false  pretenses." 

"  I  deny  that.  Not  under  false  pretenses."  How 
188 


AFTER  TEN  YEARS 

quickly  things  went  about !     "  Let  me  tell  you  how 
I  met  her." 

The  consul-general  listened ;  he  listened  with  won 
der  and  interest,  and  more,  with  conviction  that  the 
young  man  had  been  perfectly  honest.  But  the 
knowledge  only  added  to  his  growing  alarm.  It 
would  not  be  difficult  for  such  a  man  to  win  the  re 
gard  of  any  young  woman. 

"  And  you  told  her  what  you  had  done  ?  " 

"Yes." 

"  Your  first  misstep  ?  "  touching  the  cablegram. 

"  My  first  and  only  misstep.  I  was  a  careless, 
happy-go-lucky  young  fool."  The  sky  outside  also 
had  attraction  for  Warrington.  A  thousand  times 
a  fool! 

"  How  long  ago  did  this  happen  ?  " 

"Ten  years  this  coming  April." 

"And  now,  after  all  this  time,  you  wish  to  go 
back?" 

"  I  have  wished  to  go  back  many  times,  but  never 
had  money  enough.  I  have  plenty  now.  Oh,  I 
made  it  honestly,"  smiling.  "  In  oil,  at  Prome. 
Here's  a  cutting  from  a  Rangoon  paper." 

The  other  read  it  carefully.     It  was  romance,  ro- 
189 


PARROT  &  CO. 

mance  such  as  he  liked  to  read  in  his  books,  but 
which  was  mighty  bewildering  to  have  at  his  elbow 
in  actuality.  What  a  life  the  man  must  have  led! 
And  here  he  was,  with  no  more  evidence  of  the  con 
flict  than  might  be  discerned  in  the  manliness  of  his 
face  and  the  breadth  and  depth  of  his  shoulders. 
He  dropped  the  cutting,  impatiently. 

"Don't  you  believe  it?" 

"Believe  it?  Oh,  this?  Yes,"  answered  the 
consul-general.  "  What  I  can  not  believe  is  that  I 
am  awake.  I  can  not  quite  make  two  and  two  equal 
four." 

"Which  infers?" 

"  That  I  can  not  .  .  .  Well,  you  do  not  look  like 
a  man  who  would  rob  his  employer  of  eight  thou 
sand  dollars." 

"  Much  obliged." 

"  Parrot  &  Co.  It's  odd,  but  I  recollect  that  title. 
You  were  at  Udaipur  during  the  plague." 

Warrington  brightened.  "  So  that's  got  about  ? 
I  happened  to  be  there,  working  on  the  prince's  rail 
way." 

"  I  will  send  the  cable  at  once.  You  will  doubt- 
190 


AFTER  TEN  YEARS 

less  hear  from  New  York  in  the  morning.  But  you 
must  not  see  Miss  Chetwood  again." 

"  You  will  let  me  bid  her  good-by  ?  I  admire  and 
respect  her  more  than  any  other  woman.  She  does 
not  know  it,  for  as  yet  her  soul  is  asleep ;  but  she  is 
one  of  those  few  women  God  puts  on  earth  for  the 
courage  and  comfort  of  man.  Only  to  say  good-by 
to  her.  Here  in  this  office,  if  you  wish." 

"  I  agree  to  that." 

"  Thank  you  again."     Warrington  rose. 

"  I  am  genuinely  sorry  for  you.  If  they  say  no, 
what  will  you  do  ?  " 

"  Go  back  just  the  same.  I  have  another  debt  to 
cancel." 

"  Call  in  the  morning.  I'll  let  you  know  what 
the  charges  are." 

"  I  forgot.  Here  are  twenty  pounds.  You  can 
return  the  balance  when  I  call.  I  am  very  grate 
ful." 

"  By  the  way,  there  is  a  man  here  by  the  name  of 
Mallow,"  began  the  consul-general. 

"  Yes,"  interrupted  Warrington,  with  a  smile 
which  was  grim  and  cruel.  "  I  expect  to  call  upon 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

him.     He  owes  me  something  like  fifty  pounds,  and 
I  am  going  to  collect  it."     Then  he  went  out. 

The  consul-general  dropped  Mallow's  perfectq 
into  the  waste-basket  and  lighted  his  pipe.  Once 
more  he  read  the  cablegram.  The  Andes  Construc 
tion  Company.  What  a  twist,  what  an  absurd  kink 
in  the  skein !  Nearly  all  of  Elsa's  wealth  lay  bound 
up  in  this  enormous  business  which  General  Chet- 
wood  had  founded  thirty  odd  years  before.  And 
neither  of  them  knew ! 

"  I  am  not  a  bad  man  at  heart,"  he  mused,  "  but 
I  liked  the  young  man's  expression  when  I  men 
tioned  that  bully  Mallow." 

He  joined  his  family  at  five.  He  waved  aside 
tea,  and  called  for  a  lemon-squash. 

"  Elsa,  I  am  going  to  give  you  a  lecture." 

"  Didn't  I  tell  you  ?  "  cried  Elsa  to  the  wife.  "  I 
felt  in  my  bones  that  he  was  going  to  say  this  very 
thing."  She  turned  to  her  old-time  friend.  "  Go 
on ;  lecture  me." 

"  In  the  first  place,  you  are  too  kind-hearted." 

"  That  will  be  news  to  my  friends.  They  say  I 
have  a  heart  of  ice." 

193 


"Go  on  :   lecture  me 


AFTER  TEN  YEARS 

"  And  what  you  think  is  independence  of  spirit  is 
sometimes  indiscretion." 

"  Oh,"  said  Elsa,  becoming  serious. 

"  A  man  came  into  my  office  to-day.  He  is  a  rich 
copra-grower  from  Penang.  He  spoke  of  you. 
You  passed  him  on  going  out.  If  I  had  been  twenty 
years  younger  I'd  have  punched  his  ugly  head.  His 
name  is  Mallow,  and  he's  not  a  savory  chap." 

Elsa's  cheeks  burned.  She  never  would  forget 
the  look  in  that  man's  eyes.  The  look  might  have 
been  in  other  men's  eyes,  but  conventionality  had  al 
ways  veiled  it;  she  had  never  seen  it  before. 

"  Go  on ;  "  but  her  voice  was  unsteady. 

"  Somewhere  along  the  Irrawaddy  you  made  the 
acquaintance  of  a  young  man  who  calls  himself 
Warrington,  familiarly  known  as  Parrot  &  Co.  I'll 
be  generous.  Not  one  woman  in  a  thousand  would 
have  declined  to  accept  the  attentions  of  such  a  man. 
He  is  cultivated,  undeniably  good-looking,  a  strong 
man,  mentally  and  physically." 

Elsa's  expression  was  now  enigmatical. 

"There's  not  much  veneer  to  him.  He  fooled 
me  unintentionally.  He  was  quite  evidently  born 

193 


PARROT  &  CO. 

a  gentleman,  of  a  race  of  gentlemen.  His  is  not  an 
isolated  case.  One  misstep,  and  the  road  to  the 
devil." 

The  consul-general's  wife  sent  a  startled  glance 
at  Elsa,  who  spun  her  sunshade  to  lighten  the  ten 
sion  of  her  nerves. 

"  He  confessed  frankly  to  me  this  morning  that 
he  is  a  fugitive  from  justice.  He  wishes  to  return 
to  America.  He  recounted  the  circumstances  of 
your  meeting.  To  me  the  story  appeared  truthful 
enough.  He  said  that  you  sought  the  introduction 
because  of  his  amazing  likeness  to  the  man  you  are 
going  home  to  marry." 

"That  is  true,"  replied  Elsa.  "Uncle  Jim,  I 
have  traveled  pretty  much  over  this  world,  and  I 
never  met  a  gentleman  if  Warrington  is  not  one." 
There  was  unconscious  belligerency  in  her  tone. 

"  Ah,  there's  the  difficulty  which  women  will 
never  be  made  to  understand.  Every  man  can,  at 
one  time  or  another,  put  himself  upon  his  good  be 
havior.  Underneath  he  may  be  a  fine  rascal." 

"  Not  this  one,"  smiling.  "  He  warned  me 
against  himself  a  dozen  times,  but  that  served  to 
make  me  stubborn.  The  fault  of  my  conduct," 

194 


AFTER  TEN  YEARS 

acidly,  "  was  not  in  making  this  pariah's  acquaint 
ance.  It  lies  in  the  fact  that  I  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  other  passengers,  from  choice.  That  is 
where  I  was  indiscreet.  But  why  should  I  put  my 
self  out  to  gain  the  good  wishes  of  people  for  whom 
I  have  no  liking;  people  I  shall  probably  never  see 
again  when  I  leave  this  port?  " 

"  You  forget  that  some  of  them  will  be  your  fel 
low  passengers  all  the  way  to  San  Francisco.  My 
child,  you  know  as  well  as  I  do  that  there  are  some 
laws  which  the  Archangel  Michael  would  have  to 
obey,  did  he  wish  to  inhabit  this  earth  for  a  while." 

"  Poor  Michael !  And  if  you  do  not  obey  these 
laws,  people  talk." 

"  Exactly.  There  are  two  sets  of  man-made  laws. 
One  governs  the  conduct  of  men  and  the  other  the 
conduct  of  women." 

"And  a  man  may  break  any  one  of  these  laws, 
twist  it,  rearrange  it  to  suit  his  immediate  needs. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  woman  is  always  manacled." 

"  Precisely." 

"  I  consider  it  horribly  unfair." 

"  So  it  is.  But  if  you  wish  to  live  in  peace,  you 
must  submit." 

195 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  Peace  at  that  price  I  have  no  wish  for.  This 
man  Mallow  lives  within  the  pale  of  law;  the 
other  man  is  outside  of  it.  Yet,  of  the  two,  which 
would  you  be  quickest  to  trust?" 

The  consul-general  laughed.  "  Now  you  are  ap 
pealing  not  to  my  knowledge  of  the  world  but  to 
my  instinct." 

"  Thanks." 

"  Is  there  any  reason  why  you  should  defend 
Mr.  Warrington,  as  he  calls  himself?" 

The  consul-general's  wife  desperately  tried  to 
catch  her  husband's  eye.  But  either  he  did  not  see 
the  glance  or  he  purposely  ignored  it. 

"  In  defending  Mr.  Warrington  I  am  defending 
myself." 

"  A  good  point." 

"  My  dear  friend,"  Elsa  went  on,  letting  warmth 
come  into  her  voice  once  more,  "  my  sympathy  went 
out  to  that  man.  He  looked  so  lonely.  Did  you 
notice  his  eyes?  Can  a  man  look  at  you  the  way; 
he  does  and  be  bad  ?  " 

"  I  have  seen  Mallow  dozens  of  times.  I  know 
him  to  be  a  scoundrel  of  sorts;  but  I  doubt  if  bald 
sunlight  could  make  him  blink.  Liars  have  first  to 

196 


AFTER  TEN  YEARS 

overcome  the  flickering  and  wavering  of  the  eyes." 

"  He  said  that" 

"  Who,  Warrington  ?  "  puzzled. 

"  He  said  almost  the  same  thing.  Would  he  say 
that  if  he  were  a  liar  ?  " 

"  I  haven't  accused  him  of  being  that.  Indeed, 
he  struck  me  as  a  truthful  young  man.  But  he 
confessed  to  me  that  ten  years  ago  he  robbed  his 
employer  of  eight  thousand  dollars.  By  the  way, 
what  is  the  name  of  the  firm  your  father  founded?  " 

"The  Andes  Construction  Company.  Do  you 
think  we  could  find  him  something  to  do  there  ?  " 
eagerly.  "  He  builds  bridges." 

"  I  shouldn't  advise  that.  But  we  have  gone 
astray.  You  ought  not  to  see  him  again." 

"  I  have  made  up  my  mind  not  to." 

"  Then  pardon  me  for  all  this  pother.  I  know 
what  is  in  your  heart,  Elsa.  You  want  to  help  the 
poor  devil  back  to  what  he  was;  but  he'll  have  to 
do  that  by  himself." 

"  It  is  a  hateful  world ! "  Elsa  appealed  to  the 
wife. 

"  It  is,  Elsa,  dear.     But  James  is  right." 

"You'll  get  your  balance,"  said  the  guardian, 

197! 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  when     you     reach     home.     When's     the     wed 
ding?" 

"  I'm  not  sure  that  I'm  going  to  be  married." 
Elsa  twirled  the  sunshade  again.  "  I  really  wish  I 
had  stayed  at  home.  I  seem  all  topsy-turvy.  I 
could  have  screamed  when  I  saw  the  man  standing 
on  the  ledge  above  the  boat  that  night.  No;  I  do 
not  believe  I  shall  marry.  Fancy  marrying  a  man 
and  knowing  that  his  ghost  was  at  the  same  time 
wandering  about  the  earth !  "  She  rose  and  the  sun 
shade  described  a  half-circle  as  she  spoke.  "  Oh, 
bother  with  it  all !  Dinner  at  eight,  in  the  big  din 
ing-room." 

"  Yes.  But  the  introductions  will  be  made  on 
the  cafe-veranda.  These  people  out  here  have  gone 
mad  over  cock-tails.  And  look  your  best,  Elsa.  I 
want  them  to  see  a  real  American  girl  to-night. 
I'll  have  some  roses  sent  up  to  you." 

Elsa  had  not  the  heart  to  tell  him  that  all  in 
terest  in  his  dinner  had  suddenly  gone  from  her 
mind;  that  even  the  confusion  of  the  colonel  no 
longer  appealed  to  her  bitter  malice.  She  knew 
that  she  was  going  to  be  bored  and  miserable, 
l,  she  had  promised.  She  would  put  on  her 
198 


AFTER  TEN  YEARS 

best  gown;  she  would  talk  and  laugh  and  jest  be 
cause  she  had  done  these  things  many  times  when 
her  heart  was  not  in  the  play  of  it. 

When  she  was  gone,  the  consul-general's  wife 
said:  "Poor  girl!" 

Her  husband  looked  across  the  room  interestedly. 
"  Why  do  you  say  that?  " 

"  I  am  a  woman." 

"  That  phrase  is  the  City  of  Refuge.  All  women 
fly  to  it  when  confronted  by  something  they  do  not 
understand." 

"  Oh,  but  I  do  understand.  And  that's  the  pity 
of  it" 


XIV 

ACCORDING   TO   THE   RULES 

ELSA  sought  the  hotel  rickshaw-stand,  se 
lected  a  sturdy  coolie,  and  asked  to  be  run  to 
the  botanical  gardens  and  back.  She  wanted  to  be 
alone,  wanted  breathing-space,  wanted  the  breeze 
to  cool  her  hot  cheeks.  For  she  was  angry  at  the 
world,  angry  at  the  gentle  consul-general,  above 
all,  angry  at  herself.  To  have  laid  herself  open 
to  the  charge  of  indiscretion!  To  have  received 
a  lecture,  however  kindly  intended,  from  the  man 
she  loved  and  respected  next  to  her  father!  To 
know  that  persons  were  exchanging  nods  and  whis 
pers  behind  her  back ! 

It  was  a  detestable  world.  It  was  folly  to  be 
honest,  to  be  kind,  to  be  individual,  to  have  likes 
and  dislikes,  unless  these  might  be  regulated  by  out 
siders.  Why  should  she  care  what  people  said? 
She  did  not  care.  What  made  her  furious  was  the 
absolute  stupidity  of  their  deductions.  She  had 

200 


ACCORDING  TO  THE  RULES 

not  been  indiscreet ;  she  had  been  merely  kindly  and 
human ;  and  if  they  wanted  to  twist  and  misconstrue 
her  actions,  let  them  do  so. 

She  hated  the  word  "  people."  It  seemed  to  sig 
nify  all  the  useless  inefficient  persons  in  the  world, 
massed  together  after  the  manner  of  sheep  and  cat 
tle,  stupidest  of  beasts,  always  wanting  something 
and  never  knowing  what ;  not  an  individual  among 
them.  And  they  expected  her  to  conform  with 
their  ways !  Was  it  necessary  for  her  to  tell  these 
meddlers  why  she  had  sought  the  companionship  of 
a  self-admitted  malefactor?  .  .  .  Oh,  that  could 
not  be!  If  evil  were  to  be  found  in  such  a  man, 
then  there  was  no  good  anywhere.  What  was  one 
misstep?  Was  it  not  written  that  all  of  us  should 
make  one  or  more?  And  surely  this  man  had  ex 
piated  his.  Ten  years  in  this  wilderness,  ten  long 
lonely  years.  How  many  men  would  have  stood  up 
against  the  temptations  of  this  exile?  Few,  if  any, 
among  the  men  she  knew.  And  they  criticized  her 
because  she  was  sorry  for  the  man.  Must  she  say 
to  them :  "  Dear  people,  I  spoke  to  this  man  and 
engaged  his  companionship  because  I  was  sorry  for 
him ;  because  he  looked  exactly  like  the  man  I  have 

20 1 


PARROT  &  CO. 

promised  to  marry ! "  It  was  ridiculous.  She 
laughed.  The  dear  people! 

Once  or  twice  she  saw  inwardly  the  will-o'-the- 
wisp  lights  of  her  soul.  But  resolutely  she  smoth 
ered  the  sparks  and  bolstered  up  the  pitiful  lie. 

The  coolie  stopped  suddenly. 

"  Go  on,"  she  said. 

But  the  coolie  smiled  and  wiped  his  shaven  poll. 
Elsa  gazed  at  the  hotel-veranda  in  bewilderment. 
Slowly  she  got  out  of  the  rickshaw  and  paid  the 
fare.  She  had  not  the  slightest  recollection  of  hav 
ing  seen  the  gardens.  More  than  this,  it  was 
a  quarter  to  seven.  She  had  been  gone  exactly  an 
hour. 

"  Perhaps,  after  all,"  she  thought,  "  I  am  hope 
less.  They  may  be  right ;  I  ought  to  have  a  guard 
ian.  I  am  not  always  accountable  for  what  I  do." 

She  dressed  leisurely  and  with  calculation.  She 
was  determined  to  convince  every  one  that  she  was 
a  beautiful  woman,  above  suspicion,  above  reproach. 
The  spirit  within  her  was  not,  however,  in  direct 
accord  with  this  determination.  Malice  stirred  into 
life  again;  and  she  wanted  to  hurt  some  one,  hurt 
deeply.  It  was  only  the  tame  in  spirit  who,  when 

202 


ACCORDING  TO  THE  RULES 

injured,  submitted  without  murmur  or  protest.  And 
Elsa,  only  dimly  aware  of  it,  was  mortally  hurt. 

"Elsa,"  said  Martha,  "that  frown  will  stay 
there  some  day,  and  never  go  away." 

Elsa  rubbed  it  out  with  her  finger.  "  Martha,  do 
you  recall  that  tiger  in  the  cage  at  Jaipur?  How 
they  teased  him  until  he  lost  his  temper  and  came 
smashing  against  the  bars  ?  Well,  I  sympathize  with 
that  brute.  He  would  have  been  peaceful  enough 
had  they  let  him  be.  Has  Mr.  Warrington  called 
to-day?" 

"  No." 

"  Well,  if  he  calls  to-morrow,  say  that  I  am  in 
disposed." 

Martha  evinced  her  satisfaction  visibly.  The 
frown  returned  between  Elsa's  eyes  and  remained 
there  until  she  went  down-stairs  to  join  the  consul- 
general  and  his  wife.  She  found  some  very  agree 
able  men  and  women,  and  some  of  her  natural  gaiety 
returned.  At  a  far  table  on  the  veranda  she  saw 
Craig  and  Mallow  in  earnest  conversation. 

She  nodded  pleasantly  to  the  colonel  as  the  head 
boy  came  to  announce  that  dinner  was  served. 
Anglo-Indian  society  had  so  many  twists  and  rami- 

203 


PARROT  &  CO. 

fications  that  the  situation  was  not  exactly  new  to 
the  old  soldier.  True,  none  had  confronted  him 
identical  to  this.  But  he  had  not  disciplined  men 
all  these  years  without  acquiring  abundant  self-con 
trol.  The  little  veins  in  his  nose  turned  purple,  as 
Elsa  prophesied  they  would,  but  there  was  no  other 
indication  of  how  distasteful  the  moment  was  to 
him.  He  would  surely  warn  the  consul-general, 
who  doubtless  was  innocent  enough. 

They  sat  down.  The  colonel  blinked.  "  Fine 
passage  we  had  coming  down." 

"  Was  it  ?  "  returned  Elsa  innocently. 

The  colonel  reached  for  an  olive  and  bit  into 
it  savagely.  He  was  no  fool.  She  had  him  at  the 
end  of  a  blind-alley,  and  there  he  must  wait  until  she 
was  ready  to  let  him  go.  She  could  harry  him  or 
pretend  to  ignore  him,  as  suited  her  fancy.  He  was 
caught.  Women,  all  women,  possessed  at  least  one 
attribute  of  the  cat.  It  was  digging  in  the  claw, 
hanging  by  it,  and  boredly  looking  about  the  world 
to  see  what  was  going  on.  At  that  moment  the 
colonel  recognized  the  sting  of  the  claw. 

Elsa  turned  to  her  right  and  engaged  the  French 
consul  discursively :  the  vandalism  in  the  gardens  at 

204 


ACCORDING  TO  THE  RULES 

Versailles,  the  glut  of  vehicles  in  the  Bois  at  Paris, 
the  disappearing  of  the  old  landmarks,  the  old  Hotel 
de  Sevigne,  now  the  most  interesting  musfee  in 
France.  Indeed,  Elsa  gradually  became  the  center 
of  interest;  she  drew  them  intentionally.  She 
brought  a  touch  of  home  to  the  Frenchman,  to  the 
German,  to  the  Italian,  to  the  Spaniard;  and  the 
British  official,  in  whose  hands  the  civil  business  of 
the  Straits  Settlements  rested,  was  charmed  to  learn 
that  Elsa  had  spent  various  week-ends  at  the  home 
of  his  sister  in  Surrey. 

And  when  she  admitted  that  she  was  the  daugh 
ter  of  General  Chetwood,  the  man  to  whom  the  In 
dian  government  had  cause  to  be  grateful,  upon 
more  than  one  occasion,  for  the  solidity  of  his  struc 
tures,  the  colonel  realized  definitely  the  seriousness 
of  his  crucifixion.  He  sat  stiffer  and  stiffer  in  his 
chair,  and  the  veins  in  his  nose  grew  deeper  and 
deeper  in  hue.  He  saw  clearly  that  he  would  never 
understand  American  women.  He  had  committed 
an  outrageous  blunder.  He,  instead  of  dominating, 
had  been  dominated  by  three  faultfinding  old 
women;  and,  without  being  aware  of  the  fact,  had 
looked  at  things  from  their  point  of  view.  A  most 

205 


PARROT  &  CO. 

inconceivable  blunder.  He  would  not  allow  that  he 
was  being  swayed  less  by  the  admission  of  his  un 
pardonable  rudeness  on  board  than  by  the  immediate 
knowledge  that  Elsa  was  known  to  the  British  of 
ficial's  sister,  a  titled  lady  who  stood  exceedingly 
high  at  court. 

"  Miss  Chetwood,"  he  said,  lowering  his  voice  for 
her  ears  only. 

Elsa  turned,  but  with  the  expression  that  signi 
fied  that  her  attention  was  engaged  elsewhere. 

"Yes?" 

"I  am  an  old  man.  I  am  sixty-two;  and  most 
of  these  sixty-two  I  have  lived  roughly;  but  I  am 
not  too  old  to  realize  that  I  have  made  a  fool  of 
myself." 

Interest  began  to  fill  Elsa's  eyes. 

"  It  has  been  said,"  he  went  on,  keeping  the  key, 
"  that  I  am  a  man  of  courage,  but  I  find  that  I  need 
a  good  deal  of  that  just  now.  I  have  been  rude  to 
you,  and  without  warrant,  and  I  offer  you  my 
humble  apologies."  He  fumbled  with  his  cravat  as 
if  it  had  suddenly  tightened.  "Will  you  accept?  " 

"  Instantly."  Elsa  understood  the  quality  of 
courage  that  had  stirred  the  colonel. 

206 


ACCORDING  TO  THE  RULES 

"  Thanks." 

But  ruthlessly :  "  I  should,  however,  like  your 
point  of  view  in  regard  to  what  you  consider  my 
conduct." 

"  Is  it  necessary?" 

"  I  believe  it  would  be  better  for  my  understand 
ing  if  you  made  a  full  confession."  She  did  not 
mean  to  be  relentless,  but  her  curiosity  was  too 
strong  not  to  press  her  advantage. 

"  Well,  then,  over  here  as  elsewhere  in  the  wortd 
there  are  standards  by  which  we  judge  persons  who 
come  under  our  notice." 

"  Agreed.  Individuality  is  not  generally  under 
standable." 

"  By  the  mediocre,  you  might  have  added. 
That's  the  difficulty  with  individuality;  it  refuses  to 
be  harnessed  by  mediocrity,  and  mediocrity  holds  the 
whip-hand,  always.  I  represent  the  mediocre." 

"Oh,  never!"  said  Elsa  animatedly.  "Me 
diocrity  is  always  without  courage." 

"  You  are  wrong.  It  has  the  courage  of  its  con 
victions." 

"  Rather  is  it  not  stubbornness,  wilful  refusal  to 
recognize  things  as  they  are?" 

207 


PARROT  &  CO. 

He  countered  the  question  with  another.  "  Sup 
posing  we  were  all  individuals,  in  the  sense  you 
mean?  Supposing  each  of  us  did  exactly  as  he 
pleased?  Can  you  honestly  imagine  a  more  con 
fusing  place  than  this  world  would  be  ?  The  Man- 
churian  pony  is  a  wild  little  beast,  an  individual  if 
ever  there  was  one;  but  man  tames  him  and  puts 
to  use  his  energies.  And  so  it  is  with  human  indi 
viduality.  We  of  the  mediocre  tame  it  and  harness 
and  make  it  useful  to  the  general  welfare  of  hu 
manity.  And  when  we  encounter  the  untamable, 
in  order  to  safeguard  ourselves,  we  must  turn  it 
back  into  the  wilderness,  an  outlaw.  Indeed,  I 
might  call  individuality  an  element,  like  fire  and 
water  and  air." 

"But  who  conquer  fire  and  water  and  air?" 
Elsa  demanded,  believing  she  had  him  pocketed. 

"  Mediocrity,  through  the  individual  of  this  or 
that  being.  Humanity  in  the  bulk  is  mediocre. 
And  odd  as  it  seems,  individuality  (which  is  an 
other  word  for  genius)  believes  it  leads  mediocrity. 
But  it  can  not  be  made  to  understand  that  medioc 
rity  ordains  the  leadership." 

208 


ACCORDING  TO  THE  RULES 

"Then  you  contend  that  in  the  hands  of  the 
stupid  lies  the  balance  of  power?" 

"  Let  us  not  say  stupid,  rather  the  unimaginative, 
the  practical  and  the  plodding.  The  stubbornest 
person  in  the  world  is  one  with  an  idea." 

"  Do  you  honestly  insist  that  you  are  mediocre  ?  " 

"  No,"  thoughtfully.  "  I  am  one  of  those  stub 
born  men  with  ideas.  I  merely  insist  that  I  prefer 
to  accept  the  tenets  of  mediocrity  for  my  own  peace 
and  the  peace  of  others." 

Elsa  forgot  those  about  her,  forgot  her  intended 
humiliation  of  the  man  at  her  side.  He  denied  that 
he  was  an  individual,  but  he  was  one,  as  interesting 
a  one  as  she  had  met  in  a  very  long  time.  She, 
too,  had  made  a  blunder.  Quick  to  form  opinions, 
swift  to  judge,  she  stood  guilty  with  the  common 
lot,  who  permit  impressions  instead  of  evidence  to 
sway  them.  Here  was  a  man. 

"  We  have  gone  far  afield,"  she  said,  a  tacit  ad 
mission  that  she  could  not  refute  his  dissertations. 
This  knowledge,  however,  was  not  irksome. 

"  Rather  have  we  not  come  to  the  bars  ?  Shall 
we  let  them  down  ?  " 

209 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  Proceed." 

"In  the  civil  and  military  life  on  this  side  of 
the  world  there  are  many  situations  which  we  per 
force  must  tolerate.  But  these,  mind  you,  are  set 
tled  conditions.  It  is  upon  new  ones  which  arise 
that  we  pass  judgment.  I  knew  nothing  about  you, 
nothing  whatever.  So  I  judged  you  according  to 
the  rules." 

Elsa  leaned  upon  her  elbows,  and  she  smiled  a 
little  as  she  noted  that  the  purple  had  gone  from 
his  nose  and  that  it  had  resumed  its  accustomed 
rubicundity. 

"  I  go  on.  A  woman  who  travels  alone,  who  does 
not  present  letters  of  introduction,  who  .  .  ." 

"  Who  attends  strictly  to  her  own  affairs.  Go 
on." 

"  Who  is  young  and  beautiful." 

"A  sop!    Thanks!" 

Imperturbably  he  continued :  "  Who  seeks  the 
acquaintance  of  men  who  do  not  belong,  as  you 
Americans  say." 

"  Not  men ;  one  man,"  she  corrected. 

"  A  trifling  difference.  Well,  it  arouses  a  dis 
agreeable  word,  suspicion.  For  look,  there  have 

210 


ACCORDING  TO  THE  RULES 

been  examples.  It  isn't  as  if  yours  were  an  isolated 
case.  There  have  been  examples,  and  these  we  ap 
ply  to  such  affairs  as  come  under  our  notice." 

"  And  it  doesn't  matter  that  you  may  be  totally 
wrong?  " 

His  prompt  answer  astonished  her.  "  No,  it  does 
not  matter  in  the  least.  Simmered  down,  it  may  be 
explained  in  a  word,  appearances.  And  I  must  say, 
to  the  normal  mind  .  .  ." 

"  The  mediocre  mind." 

"  To  the  normal  and  mediocre  mind,  appearances 
were  against  you.  Observe,  please,  that  I  did  not 
know  I  was  wrong,  that  you  were  a  remarkable 
young  woman.  My  deductions  were  made  from 
what  I  saw  as  an  outsider.  On  the  Irrawaddy  you 
made  the  acquaintance  of  a  man  who  came  out  here 
a  fugitive  from  justice.  After  you  made  his  ac 
quaintance,  you  sought  none  other,  in  fact,  repelled 
any  advances.  This  alone  decided  me." 

"  Then  you  were  decided  ?  "  To  say  that  this 
blunt  exposition  was  not  bitter  to  her  taste,  that 
it  did  not  act  like  acid  upon  her  pride,  would  not 
be  true.  She  was  hurt,  but  she  did  not  let  the  hurt 
befog  her  sense  of  justice.  From  his  point  of  view 

211 


PARROT  &  CO. 

the  colonel  was  in  no  fault.  "  Let  me  tell  you  how 
very  wrong  you  were  indeed." 

"  Doubtless,"  he  hastily  interposed,  "  you  envel 
oped  the  man  in  a  cloud  of  romance." 

"  On  the  contrary,  I  spoke  to  him  and  sought  his 
companionship  because  he  was  nothing  more  nor 
less  than  a  ghost." 

"  Ah !  Is  it  possible  that  you  knew  him  in  former 
times?" 

"  No.  But  he  was  so  like  the  man  at  home ;  so 
identical  in  features  and  build  to  the  man  I  ex 
pected  to  go  home  to  marry.  .  .  ." 

"  My  dear  young  lady,  you  are  right.  Medioc 
rity  is  without  imagination,  stupid,  and  makes  the 
world  a  dull  place  indeed.  Like  the  man  you  ex 
pect  to  marry !  What  woman  in  your  place  would 
have  acted  otherwise?  And  I  have  made  my  state 
ments  as  bald  and  brutal  as  an  examining  magis 
trate  !  Instead  of  one  apology  I  offer  a  thousand." 

"  I  accept  each  and  all  of  them.  More,  I  believe 
that  you  and  I  could  get  on  capitally.  I  can  very 
well  imagine  the  soldier  you  used  to  be.  I  am  go 
ing  to  ask  you  what  you  know  about  Mr.  Warring- 
ton." 

212 


ACCORDING  TO  THE  RULES 

"  This,  that  he  is  not  a  fit  companion  for  a  young 
woman  like  yourself;  that  a  detractable  rumor  fol 
lows  hard  upon  his  heels  wherever  he  goes.  I 
learned  something  about  him  in  Rangoon.  He  is 
known  to  the  riff-raff  as  Parrot  &  Co.,  and  I  don't 
know  what  else.  All  of  us  on  shipboard  learned  his 
previous  history." 

"  Ah !  "     She  was  quite  certain  of  the  historian. 

"  And  not  from  respectable  quarters,  either." 

"  If  I  had  been  elderly  and  without  physical  at 
tractions?"  Elsa  inquired  sarcastically. 

"  We  are  dealing  with  human  nature,  mediocrity, 
and  not  with  speculation.  It  is  in  the  very  nature 
of  things  to  distrust  that  which  we  do  not  under 
stand.  You  say,  old  and  without  physical  attrac 
tions.  Beauty  is  of  all  things  most  drawing.  We 
crowd  about  it,  we  crown  it,  we  flatter  it.  The  old 
and  unattractive  we  pass  by.  If  I  had  not  seen  you 
here  to-night,  heard  you  talk,  saw  in  a  kind  of  rebel 
lious  enchantment  over  your  knowledge  of  the  world 
and  your  distinguished  acquaintance,  I  should  have 
gone  to  my  grave  believing  that  my  suspicions  were 
correct.  I  dare  say  that  I  shall  make  the  same  mis 
take  again." 

213 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  But  do  not  judge  so  hastily." 

"  That  I  promise." 

"  Did  you  learn  among  other  things  what  Mr. 
Warrington  had  done  ?  " 

"  Yes.  A  sordid  affair.  Ordinary  peculations 
that  were  wasted  over  gaming-tables." 

Warrington  had  told  her  the  truth.  At  least,  the 
story  told  by  others  coincided  with  his  own.  But 
what  was  it  that  kept  doubt  in  her  mind?  Why 
should  she  not  be  ready  to  believe  what  others  be 
lieved,  what  the  man  himself  had  confessed? 
What  was  it  to  her  that  he  looked  like  Arthur,  that 
he  was  guilty  or  innocent? 

"  And  his  name?  "  She  wondered  if  the  colonel 
knew  that  also. 

"  Warrington  is  assumed.  His  real  name  is  Paul 
Ellison." 

"  Paul  Ellison."  She  repeated  it  slowly.  Her 
voice  did  not  seem  her  own.  The  table,  the  lights, 
the  faces,  all  receded  and  became  a  blur. 


XV 

A   BIT   OF  A  LARK 

MALLOW  gave  Craig  one  of  his  favorite 
cigars.  The  gambler  turned  it  over  and  in 
spected  the  carnelian  label,  realizing  that  this  was 
expected  of  him.  Mallow  smiled  complacently. 
They  might  smoke  as  good  as  that  at  the  govern 
ment-house,  but  he  rather  doubted  it.  Trust  a 
Britisher  to  know  a  good  pipe-charge;  but  his  se 
lection  of  cigars  was  seldom  to  be  depended  upon. 

"  Don't  see  many  of  these  out  here,"  was  Craig's 
comment,  and  he  tucked  away  the  cigar  in  a  vest 
pocket. 

"  They  cost  me  forty-three  cents  apiece,  without 
duty."  The  vulgarian's  pleasure  lies  not  in  the 
article  itself  so  much  as  in  the  price  paid  for  it. 
On  the  plantation  Mallow  smoked  Burma  cheroots 
because  he  really  preferred  them.  There,  he  drank 
rye  whisky,  consorted  with  his  employees,  gambled 
with  them  and  was  not  above  cheating  when  he 

213 


PARROT  &  CO. 

had  them  drunk  enough.  Away  from  home,  how 
ever,  he  was  the  man  of  money ;  he  bought  vintage 
wines  when  he  could,  wore  silks,  jingled  the  sover 
eigns  whenever  he  thought  some  one  might  listen, 
bullied  the  servants,  all  with  the  childish  belief  that 
he  was  following  the  footsteps  of  aristocracy,  hood 
winking  no  one,  not  even  his  kind.  "  I'm  worth  a 
quarter  of  a  million,"  he  went  on.  "  Luck  and 
plugging  did  it.  One  of  these  fine  days  I'm  going 
to  sell  out  and  take  a  whack  at  that  gay  Paris. 
There's  the  place  to  spend  your  pile.  You  can't  get 
your  money's  worth  any  place  else." 

Paris.  Craig's  thought  flew  back  to  the  pros 
perous  days  when  he  was  plying  his  trade  between 
New  York  and  Cherbourg,  on  the  Atlantic  liners, 
the  annual  fortnight  in  Paris  and  the  Grand-Prix. 
He  had  had  his  diamonds,  then,  and  his  wallet  of 
yellow-backs;  and  when  he  had  called  for  vintage 
wines  and  choice  Havanas  it  had  been  for  genuine 
love  of  them.  In  his  heart  he  despised  Mallow. 
He  knew  himself  to  be  a  rogue,  but  Mallow  without 
money  would  have  been  a  bold  predatory  scoundrel. 
Craig  knew  also  that  he  himself  was  at  soul  too 
cowardly  to  be  more  than  despicably  bad.  He 

216 


A  BIT  OF  A  LARK 

envied  Mallow's  absolute  fearlessness,  his  frank 
brutality,  his  strength  upon  which  dissipation  had  as 
yet  left  no  mark;  and  Mallow  was  easily  forty- 
five.  Paris.  He  might  never  see  that  city  again. 
He  had  just  enough  to  carry  him  to  Hongkong  and 
keep  him  on  his  feet  until  the  races.  He  sent  a 
bitter  glance  toward  the  sea  where  the  moonlight 
gave  an  ashen  hue  to  the  forest  of  rigging.  The 
beauty  of  the  scene  did  not  enter  his  eye.  His  mind 
was  recalling  the  luxurious  smoke-rooms. 

"  When  you  go  to  Paris,  I'd  like  to  go  along." 
"  You've  never  let  on  why  they  sent  you  hiking 
out  here,"  Mallow  suggested. 

"  One  of  my  habits  is  keeping  my  mouth  shut" 
"  Regarding  your  own  affairs,  yes.     But  you're 
willing  enough  to  talk  when  it  comes  to  giving  away 
the  other  chap." 

"  You  can  play  that  hand  as  well  as  I  can." 
Craig  scowled  toward  the  dining-room  doors. 

"  Ha !  There  they  come,"  said  Mallow,  as  a 
group  of  men  and  women  issued  out  into  the  cafe- 
veranda.  "By  gad!  she  is  a  beauty,  and  no  mis 
take.  And  will  you  look  at  our  friend,  the  colonel, 
toddling  behind  her  ?  " 

217 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  You're  welcome." 

"You're  a  fine  lady-killer."  Mallow  tore  the 
band  from  a  fresh  cigar  and  struck  a  match. 

"  I  know  when  I've  got  enough.  If  you  could  get 
a  good  look  at  her  when  she's  angry,  you'd  change 
your  tune." 

Mallow  sighed  audibly.  "  Most  women  are  tame, 
and  that's  why  I've  fought  shy  of  the  yoke. 
Yonder's  the  sort  for  me.  The  man  who  marries 
her  will  have  his  work  cut  out.  It'll  take  a  year 
or  two  to  find  out  who's  boss ;  and  if  she  wins,  lord 
help  the  man !  " 

Craig  eyed  the  group  which  was  now  seated. 
Two  Chinamen  were  serving  coffee  and  cordials. 
Mallow  was  right;  beautiful  was  the  word.  A 
vague  regret  came  to  him,  as  it  comes  to  all  men 
outside  the  pale,  that  such  a  woman  could  never 
be  his.  He  poured  out  for  himself  a  stiff  peg  and 
drank  it  with  very  little  soda.  Craig  always  fled, 
as  it  were,  from  introspection. 

"  Haven't  seen  the  crow  anywhere,  have  you  ?  " 

"  No,  nor  want  to.     Leave  him  alone." 

"Afraid  of  him,  eh?" 

"I'm  truthful  enough  to  say  that  I'm  damned 
218 


A  BIT  OF  A  LARK 

afraid  of  him.  Don't  mistake  me.  I'd  like  to  see 
him  flat,  beaten,  down  and  out  for  good.  I'd  like 
to  see  him  lose  that  windfall,  every  cent  of  it.  But 
I  don't  want  to  get  in  his  way  just  now." 

"  Rot !  Don't  you  worry ;  no  beach-comber  lilce 
that  can  stand  up  long  in  front  of  me.  He  threat 
ened  on  board  that  he  was  going  to  collect  that  fifty 
pounds.  He  hasn't  been  very  spry  about  it." 

"  I  should  like  to  be  with  you  when  you  meet." 

Mallow  grinned.  "  Not  above  seeing  a  pal  get 
walloped,  eh?  Well,  you  get  a  ring-side  ticket. 
It'll  be  worth  it." 

"I  don't  want  to  see  you  get  licked,"  denied 
Craig  irritably.  "  All  I  ask  is  that  you  shelve 
some  of  your  cock-sureness.  I'm  not  so  dead-broke 
that  I  must  swallow  all  of  it.  I've  warned  you  that 
he  is  a  strong  man.  He  used  to  be  one  of  the  best 
college  athletes  in  America." 

"  College !  "  exploded  Mallow.  "  What  the  devil 
does  a  college  athlete  know  about  a  dock-fight?  " 

"  Ever  see  a  game  of  football?  " 

"  No." 

"Well,  take  it  from  me  that  it's  the  roughest 
game  going.  It's  a  game  where  you  put  your  boot 

219 


PARROT  &  CO. 

in  a  man's  face  when  he's  not  looking.  Mallow, 
they  kill  each  other  in  that  game.  And  Ellison  was 
one  of  the  best,  fifteen  years  ago.  He  used  to  wade 
through  a  ton  of  solid,  scrapping,  plunging  flesh. 
And  nine  times  out  of  ten  he  used  to  get  through. 
I  want  you  to  beat  him  up,  and  it's  because  I  do 
that  I'm  warning  you  not  to  underestimate  him. 
On  shipboard  he  handled  me  as  you  would  a  bag 
of  salt;  damn  him!  He's  a  surprise  to  me.  He 
looks  as  if  he  had  lived  clean  out  here.  There's  no 
booze-sign  hanging  out  on  him,  like  there  is  on  you 
and  me." 

"  Booze  never  hurt  me  any." 

"  You're  galvanized  inside,"  said  Craig,  staring 
again  at  Elsa.  He  wished  he  knew  how  to  hurt  her, 
too.  But  he  might  as  well  throw  stones  at  the  stars. 

"  How  would  you  like  to  put  one  over  on  this 
chap  Ellison?  " 

"In  what  way?" 

Mallow  smoked  for  a  moment,  then  touched  his 
breast  pocket  significantly. 

"  Not  for  mine,"  returned  Craig.  "  Cards  are 
my  long  suit.  I'm  no  second-story  man,  not  yet." 

220 


A  BIT  OF  A  LARK 

"  I  know.  But  supposing  you  could  get  it  with 
out  risk?" 

"  In  the  first  place,  the  bulk  of  his  cash  is  tied  up 
in  letters  of  credit." 

"Ah,  you  know  that?" 

"What  good  would  it  do  to  pinch  those?  In 
Europe  there  would  be  some  chance,  but  not  here 
where  boats  are  two  weeks  apart.  A  cable  to  Ran 
goon  would  shut  off  all  drawing.  He  could  have 
others  made  out.  In  cash  he  may  have  a  few  hun 
dreds." 

"  All  gamblers  are  more  or  less  yellow,"  sneered 
Mallow.  "  The  streak  in  you  is  pretty  wide.  I  tell 
you,  you  needn't  risk  your  skin.  Are  you  game  to 
put  one  over  that  will  cost  him  a  lot  of  worry  and 
trouble?" 

"  So  long  as  I  can  stand  outside  the  ropes  and  look 
on." 

"  He  has  a  thousand  pounds  in  his  belt.  No  mat 
ter  how  I  found  out.  How'd  you  like  to  put  your 
hand  on  it  if  you  were  sure  it  would  not  burn  your 
fingers  ?  " 

"  I'd  like  to,  all  right.  But  it's  got  to  be  mighty 
certain.  And  the  belt  must  be  handed  to  me  by 

221 


PARROT  &  CO. 

some  one  else.  I've  half  a  wonder  if  you're  not 
aiming  to  get  rid  of  me,"  with  an  evil  glance  at  his 
tempter. 

"  If  I  wanted  to  get  rid  of  you,  this'd  be  the  way," 
said  Mallow,  opening  and  shutting  his  powerful 
hands.  "  I'm  just  hungering  for  a  bit  of  a  lark. 
Come  on.  A  thousand  pounds  for  taking  a  little 
rickshaw  ride.  Ever  hear  of  Wong's?  Opium, 
pearls,  oils  and  shark-fins  ?  " 

"  No." 

"  Not  many  do.  I  know  Singapore  like  the  lines 
on  my  hands.  Wong  is  the  shrewdest,  most  lawless 
Chinaman  this  side  of  Canton  and  Macao.  Pipes, 
pearls  and  shark-fins.  Did  you  know  that  the  bay 
out  there  is  so  full  of  sharks  that  they  have  to  stand 
on  their  tails  for  lack  of  space?  Big  money. 
Wong's  the  man  to  go  to.  Want  a  schooner  rigged 
out  for  illicit  shell-hunting?  Want  a  man  shang 
haied?  Want  him  written  down  missing?  Go  to 
Wong." 

"  See  here,  Mallow ;  I  don't  mind  his  being  beaten 
up;  but  what  you  say  doesn't  sound  good." 

"  You  fool,  I  don't  want  him  out  of  the  way. 

222 


A  BIT  OF  A  LARK 

Why  should  I?  But  there's  that  thousand  for  you 
and  worry  for  him.  All  aboard !  " 

"  You  don't  love  Parrot  &  Co.  any  more  than  I 
do." 

"  No.  I'd  sleep  better  o'  nights  if  I  knew  he  was 
broken  for  keeps.  Too  much  red-tape  to  put  the 
United  States  after  him.  How'd  you  rig  him  ?  " 

"  Faro  and  roulette.  They  never  tumble.  I 
didn't  have  anything  against  him  until  he  ran  into 
me  at  Rangoon.  But  he's  stepped  in  too  many 
times  since.  Is  this  straight?" 

"About  lifting  his  belt?  Easy  as  falling  off  a 
log.  Leave  it  to  me.  His  room  is  on  the  first  gal 
lery,  facing  southwest.  You  can  chalk  it  up  as  re 
venge.  I'll  take  it  on  as  a  bit  of  good  sport.  Wong 
will  fix  us  out.  Now  look  alive.  It's  after  nine, 
and  I'd  like  a  little  fun  first." 

The  two  left  the  cafe-veranda  and  engaged  a  pair 
of  rickshaws.  As  they  jogged  down  the  road, 
Warrington  stepped  out  from  Behind  the  palms  and 
moodily  watched  them  until  the  night  swallowed 
them  up.  He  had  not  overheard  their  interesting 
conversation,  nor  had  he  known  they  were  about 

223 


PARROT  &  CO. 

until  they  came  down  the  steps  together.  He  ached 
to  follow  them.  He  was  in  a  fine  mood  for  blows. 
That  there  were  two  of  them  did  not  trouble  him. 
Of  one  thing  he  was  assured :  somewhere  in  the  dim 
past  an  ancestor  of  his  had  died  in  a  Berserk  rage. 

He  had  been  watching  Elsa.  It  disturbed  but 
did  not  mystify  him  to  see  her  talking  to  the  colonel. 
Table-chance  had  brought  them  together,  and  per 
haps  to  a  better  understanding.  How  pale  she  was ! 
From  time  to  time  he  caught  the  flash  of  her  eyes 
as  she  turned  to  this  or  that  guest.  Once  she 
smiled,  but  the  smile  did  not  lighten  up  her  face. 
He  was  very  wretched  and  miserable.  She  had 
taken  him  at  his  word,  and  he  should  have  been  glad. 
He  had  seen  her  but  once  again  on  board,  but  she 
had  looked  away.  It  was  best  so.  Yet,  it  was  as  if 
fate  had  reached  down  into  his  heart  and  snapped 
the  strings  which  made  life  tuneful. 

And  to-morrow !  What  would  to-morrow  bring  ? 
Would  they  refuse?  Would  they  demand  the  full 
penalty?  Eight  thousand  with  interest  was  a  small 
sum  to  such  a  corporation.  He  had  often  wondered 
if  they  had  searched  for  him.  Ten  years.  In  the 
midst  of  these  cogitations  he  saw  the  group  at  the 

224 


table  rise  and  break  up.  Elsa  entered  the  hotel. 
Warrington  turned  away  and  walked  aimlessly  to 
ward  town.  For  hours  he  wandered  about,  seeing 
nothing,  hearing  nothing ;  and  it  was  long  past  mid 
night  when  he  sought  his  room,  restless  and  weary 
but  wide  awake.  He  called  for  a  stiff  peg,  drank 
it,  and  tumbled  into  bed.  He  was  whirled  away 
into  broken  dreams.  Now  he  was  running  down 
the  gridiron,  with  the  old  thrill  in  his  blood.  With 
that  sudden  inconceivable  twist  of  dreams,  he  saw 
the  black  pit  of  the  tramp-steamer  and  felt  the  hell- 
heat  in  his  face.  Again,  he  was  in  the  Andes,  toil 
ing  with  his  girders  over  unspeakable  chasms.  A 
shifting  glance  at  the  old  billiard-room  in  the  club, 
the  letter,  and  his  subsequent  wild  night  of  intoxi 
cation,  the  one  time  in  his  life  when  he  had  drunk 
hard  and  long.  Back  to  the  Indian  deserts  and 
jungles.  And  he  heard  the  shriek  of  parrots. 

The  shriek  of  parrots.  He  sat  up.  Even  in  his 
dream  he  recognized  that  cry.  Night  or  day,  Rajah 
always  shrieked  when  some  one  entered  the  room. 
Warrington  silently  slid  out  of  bed  and  dashed  to 
the  door  which  led  to  the  gallery.  A  body  thudded 
against  his.  He  caught  hold.  The  body  was  nude 

225 


PARROT  &  CO. 

to  the  waist  and  smelled  evilly  of  sweat  and  fish-oil. 
Something  whip-like  struck  him  across  the  face.  It 
was  a  queue. 

Warrington  struck  out,  but  missed.  Instantly  a 
pair  of  powerful  arms  wound  about  him,  bearing 
and  bending  him  backward.  His  right  arm  lay 
parallel  with  the  invader's  chest.  He  brought  up 
the  heel  of  his  palm  viciously  against  the  Chinaman's 
chin.  It  was  sufficient  to  break  the  hold.  Then 
followed  a  struggle  that  always  remained  night 
marish  to  Warrington.  Hither  and  thither  across 
the  room,  miraculously  avoiding  chairs,  tables  and 
bed,  they  surged.  He  heard  a  ring  of  steel  upon 
the  cement  floor,  and  breathed  easier  to  learn  that 
the  thief  had  dropped  his  knife.  Warrington  never 
thought  to  call  out  for  help.  The  old  fear  of  bring 
ing  people  about  him  had  become  a  habit.  Once,  in 
the  whirl  of  things,  his  hand  came  into  contact  with 
a  belt  which  hung  about  the  other's  middle.  He 
caught  at  it  and  heaved.  It  broke,  and  the  subse 
quent  tinkling  over  the  floor  advised  him  of  the  fact 
that  it  was  his  own  gold.  The  broken  belt,  how 
ever,  brought  the  fight  to  an  abrupt  end.  The  oily 
body  suddenly  slipped  away.  Warrington  beheld  a 

226 


Powerful  arms  wound  about  him 


A  BIT  OF  A  LARK 

shadow  in  the  doorway;  it  loomed  there  a  second 
against  the  sky-line,  and  vanished.  He  ran  to  the 
gallery  railing,  but  it  was  too  dark  below  to  discern 
anything. 

He  returned  to  his  room,  breathing  hard,  the  ob 
noxious  odor  of  sweat  and  fish-oil  in  his  nose.  He 
turned  on  the  lights  and  without  waiting  to  investi 
gate,  went  into  the  shower-room  and  stood  under 
the  tepid  deluge.  Even  after  a  thorough  rub-down 
the  taint  was  in  the  air.  The  bird  was  muttering 
and  turning  somersaults. 

"  Thanks,  Rajah,  old  sport !  He'd  have  got  me 
but  for  you.  Let's  see  the  damage." 

He  picked  up  the  belt.  The  paper-money  was  in 
tact,  and  what  gold  had  fallen  he  could  easily  find. 
He  then  took  up  his  vest  .  .  .  and  dropped  it, 
stunned.  The  letter  of  credit  for  half  his  fortune 
was  gone.  He  sank  back  upon  the  bed  and  stared 
miserably  at  the  fallen  garment.  Gone!  Fifty 
thousand  dollars.  Some  one  who  knew!  Pres 
ently  he  stood  up  and  tugged  at  his  beard.  After 
all,  why  should  he  worry?  A  cable  to  Rangoon 
would  stop  payments.  A  new  letter  could  be  issued. 
It  would  take  time,  but  he  had  plenty  of  that. 

227 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Idly  he  reached  for  the  broken  cigar  that  lay 
at  the  foot  of  the  bed.  He  would  have  tossed  it 
aside  as  one  of  his  own  had  not  the  carnelian  band 
attracted  his  attention.  He  hadn't  smoked  that 
quality  of  tobacco  in  years.  He  turned  it  over  and 
over,  and  it  grew  more  and  more  familiar.  Mal 
low's  ! 


XVI 
WHO  is  PAUL  ELLISON? 

FOR  some  time  Warrington  sat  upon  the  edge  of 
the  bed  and  studied  the  cigar,  balanced  it  upon 
his  palm,  as  if  striving  to  weigh  accurately  Mal 
low's  part  in  a  scrimmage  like  this.  The  copra- 
grower  assuredly  would  be  the  last  man  to  give  a 
cigar  to  a  Chinaman.  His  gifts  kept  his  coolies 
hopping  about  in  a  triangle  of  cuffs  and  kicks  and 
pummelings.  He  had  doubtless  given  the  cigar  to 
another  white  man  likely  enough,  Craig,  who,  with 
reckless  inebriate  generosity,  had  in  turn  presented 
it  to  the  Oriental.  Besides,  Mallow  was  rich. 
What  stepping-stones  he  had  used  to  acquire  his  ini 
tial  capital  were  not  perfectly  known ;  but  Warring- 
ton  had  heard  rumors  of  shady  transactions  and 
piratical  exploits  in  the  pearl  zone.  Mallow,  rich, 
was  Mallow  disposed  of,  at  least  logically;  unless  in 
deed  it  was  a  bit  of  anticipatory  reprisal.  That 
might  possibly  be.  A  drunken  Mallow  was  capable 

229 


PARROT  &  CO. 

of  much,  for  all  that  his  knowledge  of  letters  of 
credit  might  necessarily  be  primitive. 

Pah!  The  abominable  odor  of  fish  still  clung. 
He  reached  for  his  pipe  and  lighted  it,  letting  the 
smoke  sink  into  his  beard. 

Yet,  Mallow  was  no  fool.  He  would  scarcely 
take  such  risk  for  so  unstable  and  chancely  a  thing 
as  revenge  of  this  order.  Craig?  He  hadn't  the 
courage.  Strong  and  muscular  as  he  was,  he  was 
the  average  type  of  gambler,  courageous  only  when 
armed  with  a  pack  of  cards,  sitting  opposite  a  fool 
and  his  money.  But,  Craig  and  Mallow  together. 
.  .  .  He  slipped  off  the  label.  It  was  worth  pre 
serving. 

With  an  unpleasant  laugh  he  began  to  get  into 
his  clothes.  Why  not?  The  more  he  thought  of 
it,  the  more  he  was  positive  that  the  two  had  been 
behind  this  assault.  The  belt  would  have  meant  a 
good  deal  to  Craig.  There  were  a  thousand  Chi 
nese  in  Singapore  who  would  cut  a  man's  throat  for 
a  Straits  dollar.  Either  Mallow  or  Craig  had  seen 
him  counting  the  money  on  shipboard.  It  had  been 
a  pastime  of  his  to  throw  the  belt  on  the  bunk- 
blanket  and  play  with  the  gold  and  notes;  like  a 

230 


WHO  IS  PAUL  ELLISON? 

child  with  its  Christmas  blocks.  He  had  spent  hours 
gloating  over  the  yellow  metal  and  crackly  paper 
which  meant  a  competence  for  the  rest  of  his  years. 
And  Craig  or  Mallow  had  seen  him. 

He  looked  at  his  watch;  quarter  after  two.  If 
they  were  not  in  their  rooms  he  would  have  good 
grounds  for  his  suspicions.  He  stole  along  the 
gallery  and  down  the  stairs  to  the  office,  just  in  time 
to  see  the  two  enter,  much  the  worse  for  drink. 
Mallow  was  boisterous,  and  Craig  was  sullen.  The 
former  began  to  argue  with  the  night  manager,  who 
politely  shook  his  head.  Mallow  grew  insistent, 
but  the  night  manager  refused  to  break  the  rules  of 
the  hotel.  Warrington  inferred  that  Mallow  was 
demanding  liquor,  and  his  inference  was  correct. 
He  moved  a  little  closer,  still  hidden  behind  the 
potted  palms. 

"  All  right,"  cried  Mallow.  "  We'll  go  back  to 
town  for  it." 

"  I've  had  enough,"  declared  Craig  sullenly. 

"  Yah !  A  little  sore,  eh  ?  Well,  I  can't  pour  it 
down  your  throat." 

"  Let's  cut  out  booze  and  play  a  little  Hand  or  two." 

"  Fine ! "  Mallow  slapped  his  thigh  as  he 
231 


PARROT  &  CO. 

laughed.  "  Nice  bird  I'd  be  for  you  to  pluck. 
Think  of  something  else.  You  can  hit  me  on  the 
head  when  I'm  not  looking  and  take  my  money  that 
way.  What  do  you  think  I  am,  anyhow?  The 
billiard-hall  is  open." 

Craig  shook  his  head.  When  Mallow  was  argu 
mentative  it  was  no  time  to  play  billiards. 

"  Bah !  "  snarled  Mallow.  "  Since  you  won't 
drink  like  a  man  nor  play  billiards,  I'm  for  bed. 
And  just  as  the  fun  was  beginning!  " 

Craig  nudged  him  warningly.  Mallow  stalked 
away,  and  Craig,  realizing  that  the  night  was  done, 
followed. 

Warrington  had  seen  and  heard  enough.  He  was 
tolerably  sure.  It  might  have  been  out  of  pure 
deviltry,  so  far  as  Mallow  was  concerned ;  but  Craig 
had  joined  in  hope  of  definite  profits.  A  fine  pair 
of  rogues !  Neither  of  them  should  be  able  to  draw 
against  the  letter.  He  would  block  that  game  the 
first  thing  in  the  morning.  He  would  simply  notify 
the  local  banks  and  cable  to  Rangoon. 

He  eyed  indecisively  the  stairs  and  then  glanced 
toward  the  brilliant  night  outside.  It  would  not  be 
possible  to  sleep  in  that  room  again.  So  he  tiptoed 

232 


WHO  IS  PAUL  ELLISON? 

out  to  the  cafe- veranda  and  dropped  into  a  comfort 
able  chair.  He  would  hunt  them  up  some  time  dur 
ing  the  day.  He  would  ask  Mallow  for  fifty 
pounds,  and  he  sincerely  hoped  that  Mallow  would 
refuse  him.  For  he  was  grimly  resolved  that  Mal 
low  should  pay  for  those  half-truths,  more  damning 
than  bald  lies.  It  was  due  to  Mallow  that  he  was 
never  more  to  see  or  speak  to  Elsa.  He  emptied  the 
ash  from  his  cutty  which  he  stowed' away. 

The  great  heart  ache  and  the  greater  disillusion 
would  not  have  fallen  to  his  lot  had  Elsa  been  frank 
in  Rangoon,  had  she  but  told  him  that  she  was  to 
sail  on  the  same  steamer.  He  would  have  put  over 
his  sailing.  He  would  have  gone  his  way,  still  be 
lieving  himself  to  be  a  Bayard,  a  Galahad,  or  any 
other  of  those  simple  dreamers  who  put  honor  and 
chivalry  above  and  before  all  other  things. 

Elsa !  He  covered  his  face  with  his  hands  and  re 
mained  in  that  position  for  a  long  while,  so  long 
indeed  that  the  coolies,  whose  business  it  was  to 
scrub  the  tilings  every  morning  at  four,  went  about 
their  work  quietly  for  fear  of  disturbing  him. 

Elsa  had  retired  almost  immediately  after  din- 
233 


PARROT  &  CO. 

ner.  She  endeavored  to  finish  some  initial-work  on 
old  embroideries,  but  the  needle  insisted  upon  paus 
ing  and  losing  stitch  after  stitch.  She  went  to  bed 
and  tried  to  concentrate  her  thoughts  upon  a  story, 
but  she  could  no  more  follow  a  sentence  to  the  end 
than  she  could  fly.  Then  she  strove  to  sleep,  but 
that  sweet  healer  came  not  to  her  wooing.  Noth 
ing  she  did  could  overcome  the  realization  of  the 
shock  she  had  received.  It  had  left  her  dull  and  be 
wildered. 

The  name  echoed  and  reechoed  through  her  mind : 
Paul  Ellison.  It  should  have  been  an  illumination ; 
instead,  she  had  been  thrust  into  utter  darkness. 
Neither  Arthur  nor  his  mother  had  ever  spoken  of 
a  brother,  and  she  had  known  them  for  nearly  ten 
years.  Two  men,  who  might  be  twin-brothers, 
with  the  same  name:  it  was  maddening.  What 
could  it  mean?  The  beautiful  white-haired  mother, 
the  handsome  charming  son,  who  idolized  each 
other ;  and  this  adventurer,  this  outcast,  this  patient, 
brave  and  kindly  outcast,  with  his  funny  parrakeet, 
what  was  he  to  them  and  they  to  him  ?  It  must  be, 
it  must  be!  They  were  brothers.  Nature,  full  of 
amazing  freaks  as  she  was,  had  not  perpetrated  this 

234 


WHO  IS  PAUL  ELLISON? 

one  without  calling  upon  a  single  strain  of  blood. 

She  lay  back  among  her  pillows,  her  eyes  leveled 
at  the  few  stars  beyond  her  door,  opened  to  admit 
any  cooling  breeze.  Her  head  ached.  It  was  like 
the  computations  of  astronomers;  to  a  certain  ex 
tent  the  human  mind  could  grasp  the  distances  but 
could  not  comprehend  them.  It  was  more  than 
chance.  Chance  alone  had  not  brought  him  to  the 
crumbling  ledge.  There  was  a  strain  of  fatalism  in 
Elsa.  She  was  positive  that  all  these  things  had 
been  written  long  before  and  that  she  was  to  be  used 
as  the  key. 

Paul  Ellison. 

She  drew  from  the  past  those  salient  recollections 
of  Arthur  and  his  mother:  first,  the  day  the  two 
had  called  regarding  the  purchase  of  a  house  that 
her  father  had  just  put  on  the  market, — a  rambling 
old  colonial  affair,  her  own  mother's  birth-place. 
Sixteen :  she  had  not  quite  been  that,  just  free  from 
her  school-days  in  Italy.  With  the  grand  air  of 
youth  she  had  betrayed  the  fact  almost  instantly, 
while  waiting  for  her  father  to  come  into  the  living- 
room. 

"  Italy ! "    said    Arthur's    mother,    whom    Elsa 

235 


PARROT  &  CO. 

mentally  adopted  at  once.  The  stranger  spoke  a 
single  phrase,  which  Elsa  answered  in  excellent  if 
formal  Italian.  This  led  from  one  question  to  an 
other.  Mrs.  Ellison  turned  out  to  be  a  schoolmate 
of  her  mother's,  and  she,  Elsa,  had  inherited  their 
very  room.  What  more  was  needed? 

The  Ellisons  bought  the  house  and  lived  quietly 
within  it.  Society,  and  there  was  a  good  deal  of  it 
in  that  small  Kentuckian  city,  society  waited  for 
them  to  approach  and  apply  for  admittance,  but 
waited  in  vain.  Mrs.  Ellison  never  went  anywhere. 
Her  son  Arthur  was  a  student  and  preferred  his 
books.  So  eventually  society  introduced  itself. 
Persons  who  ignored  it  must  be  interesting.  When 
it  became  known  that  Mrs.  Ellison  had  been  the 
schoolmate  of  the  beautiful  and  aristocratic  wife 
of  General  Chetwood ;  when  the  local  banker  quietly 
spread  the  information  that  the  Ellisons  were  com 
fortably  supplied  with  stocks  and  bonds  of  a 
high  order,  society  concluded  that  it  could  do 
very  well  without  past  history.  That  could  come 
later. 

When  her  father  died,  Elsa  became  as  much  at 
home  in  the  Ellison  house  as  in  her  own.  But 

236 


WHO  IS  PAUL  ELLISON? 

never,  never  anywhere  in  the  house,  was  there  indi 
cation  of  the  existence  of  a  brother,  so  like  Arthur 
that  under  normal  conditions  it  would  have  been  dif 
ficult  to  tell  them  apart.  Even  when  she  used  to 
go  up  to  the  garret  with  Mrs.  Ellison,  to  aid  her  in 
rummaging  some  old  trunk,  there  came  to  light 
none  of  those  trifling  knickknacks  which  any  mother 
would  have  secretly  clung  to,  no  matter  to  what 
depth  her  flesh  and  blood  had  fallen.  Never  had 
she  seen  among  the  usual  amateur  photographs  one 
presenting  two  boys.  Once  she  had  come  across  a 
photograph  of  a  smooth-faced  youth  who  was  in  the 
act  of  squinting  along  the  top  of  an  engineer's  tri 
pod.  Arthur  had  laughingly  taken  it  away  from 
her,  saying  that  it  represented  him  when  he  had  had 
ambitions  to  build  bridges. 

To  build  bridges.  The  phrase  awoke  something 
in  Elsa's  mind.  Bridges.  She  sat  up  in  bed, 
mentally  keen  for  the  first  time  since  dinner.  "  I 
have  built  bridges  in  my  time  over  which  trains 
are  passing  at  this  moment.  I  have  fought  tor 
rents,  and  floods,  and  hurricanes,  and  myself." 

He  was  Paul  Ellison,  son  and  brother,  and  they 
had  blotted  him  out  of  their  lives  by  destroying  ^11 

237 


PARROT  &  CO. 

physical  signs  of  him.  There  was  something  in 
human  in  the  deliberateness  of  it,  something  unfor 
givable. 

They  had  made  no  foolish  attempt  to  live  under 
an  assumed  name.  They  had  come  from  New  York 
to  the  little  valley  in  order  to  leave  behind  the  scene 
of  their  disgrace  and  all  those  who  had  known  them. 
And  they  had  been  extremely  fortunate.  They 
were  all  gently  born,  Elsa's  friends  and  acquaint 
ances,  above  ordinary  inquisitiveness,  and  they  had 
respected  the  aloofness  of  the  Ellisons.  Arthur  was 
an  inveterate  traveler.  Half  the  year  found  him 
in  Europe,  painting  a  little,  writing  a  little  less, 
frequenting  the  lesser  known  villages  in  France  and 
Italy.  He  let  it  be  understood  that  he  abhorred 
cities.  In  the  ten  years  they  had  appeared  at  less 
than  a  dozen  social  affairs.  Arthur  did  not  care 
for  horses,  for  hunting,  for  sports  of  any  kind. 
And  yet  he  was  sturdy,  clear-eyed,  fresh-skinned. 
He  walked  always;  he  was  forever  tramping  off  to 
the  pine-hooded  hills,  with  his  painting-kit  over  his 
shoulders  and  his  camp-stool  under  his  arm. 
Later,  Elsa  began  to  understand  that  he  was  a  true 
scholar,  not  merely  an  educated  man.  He  was  be- 

238 


WHO  IS  PAUL  ELLISON? 

sides  a  linguist  of  amazing  facility,  a  pianist  who 
invariably  preferred  as  his  audience  his  own  two 
ears.  Arthur  would  have  been  a  great  dramatist  or 
a  great  poet,  if  ...  If  what?  If  what?  Ah,  that 
had  been  the  crux  of  it  all,  of  her  doubt,  of  her  hesi- 
tance.  If  he  had  fought  for  prizes  coveted  by  man 
kind,  if  he  had  thrown  aside  his  dreams  and  gone 
into  the  turmoil,  if  he  had  taken  up  a  man's  burden 
and  carried  it  to  success.  Elsa,  daughter  of  a  man 
who  had  fought  in  the  great -arena  from  his  youth  to 
his  death,  Elsa  was  not  meant  for  the  wife  of  a 
dreamer. 

Paul  Ellison.  What  was  his  crime  in  comparison 
to  his  expiation  of  it?  He  had  built  bridges,  fought 
torrents,  hurricanes,  himself.  No,  he  was  not  a 
scholar;  he  saw  no  romance  in  the  multifarious 
things  he  had  of  necessity  put  his  hand  to :  these  had 
been  daily  matter-of-fact  occupations.  A  strange 
gladness  seemed  to  loosen  the  tenseness  of  her 
aching  nerves. 

Then,  out  of  the  real  world  about  her,  came  with 
startling  distinctness,  the  shriek  of  a  parrot.  She 
would  have  recognized  that  piercing  cry  anywhere. 
It  was  Rajah.  In  the  next  room,  and  she  had  not 

239 


PARROT  &  CO. 

known  that  Warrington  (she  would  always  know 
him  by  that  name)  was  stopping  at  the  same  hotel! 
She  listened  intently.  Presently  she  heard  muffled 
sounds:  a  clatter  of  metal.  A  few  minutes  later 
came  a  softer  tinkle,  scurry  of  pattering  feet,  then 
silence. 

Elsa  ran  to  the  door  and  stood  motionless  by  the 
jamb,  waiting,  ethereally  white  in  the  moonshine. 
Suddenly  upon  the  gallery  pillars  flashed  yellow 
light.  She  should  have  gone  back  to  bed,  but  a 
thrill  of  unknown  fear  held  her.  By  and  by  the 
yellow  light  went  out  with  that  quickness  which 
tricks  the  hearing  into  believing  that  the  vanishing 
had  been  accompanied  by  sound.  She  saw  War 
rington,  fully  dressed,  issue  forth  cautiously, 
glance  about,  tlien  pass  down  the  gallery,  stepping 
with  the  lightness  of  a  cat. 

She  returned  hastily  to  her  room,  threw  over  her 
shoulders  a  kimono,  and  went  back  to  the  door,  hesi 
tating  there  for  a  breath  or  two.  She  stepped  out 
upon  the  gallery.  What  had  roused  him  at  this 
time  of  night?  She  leaned  over  the  railing  and 
peered  down  into  the  roadway  which  in  daytime  was 

240 


WHO  IS  PAUL  ELLISON? 

given  over  to  the  rickshaw  coolies.  She  heard  the 
crunch  of  wheels,  a  low  murmur  of  voices ;  beyond 
this,  nothing  more.  But  as  the  silence  of  the  night 
became  tense  once  more,  she  walked  as  far  as  War- 
rington's  door,  and  paused  there. 

The  gallery  floor  was  trellised  with  moonlight  and 
shadow.  She  saw  something  lying  in  the  center  of 
a  patch  of  light,  and  she  stooped.  The  light  was 
too  dim  for  her  to  read;  so  she  reentered  her  own 
room  and  turned  on  the  lights.  It  was  Warring- 
ton's  letter  of  credit.  She  gave  a  low  laugh,  per 
haps  a  bit  hysterical.  There  was  no  doubt  of  it. 
Some  one  had  entered  his  room.  There  had  been  a 
struggle  in  which  he  had  been  the  stronger,  and  the 
thief  had  dropped  his  plunder.  (As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  Chinaman,  rinding  himself  closed  in  upon, 
had  thrown  the  letter  of  credit  toward  the  railing, 
in  hope  that  it  would  fall  over  to  the  ground  below, 
where,  later,  he  could  recover  it.)  Elsa  pressed  it 
to  her  heart  as  another  woman  might  have  pressed  a 
rose,  and  laughed  again.  Something  of  his ;  some 
thing  to  give  her  the  excuse  to  see  and  to  speak  to 
him  again.  To-morrow  she  would  know;  and  he 

241 


PARROT  &  CO. 

would  tell  her  the  truth,  even  as  her  heart  knew  it 
now.  For  what  other  reason  had  he  turned  away 
from  her  that  first  day  out  of  Rangoon,  hurt  and 
broken?  Paul  Ellison;  and  she  had  told  him  that 
she  was  going  home  to  marry  his  brother ! 


XVII 

THE  ANSWERING   CABLE 

NEXT  morning,  when  it  became  known  among 
the  bankers  and  foreign  agencies  that  a  letter 
of  credit  for  ten  thousand  pounds  had  been  lost  or 
stolen,  there  was  more  than  a  ripple  of  excitement. 
They  searched  records,  but  no  loss  as  heavy  as  this 
came  to  light.  Add  to  the  flutter  a  reward  of  two 
hundred  pounds  for  the  recovery  of  the  letter,  and 
one  may  readily  imagine  the  scrutinizing  alertness 
of  the  various  clerks  and  the  subsequent  embar 
rassments  of  peaceful  tourists  who  wished  to  draw 
small  sums  for  current  expenses.  Even  the  manag 
ing  director  of  the  Bank  of  Burma  came  in  for  his 
share  of  annoyance.  He  was  obliged  to  send  out  a 
dozen  cables  of  notification  of  the  loss,  all  of  which 
had  to  be  paid  out  of  accrued  dividends.  Thus 
Warrington  had  blocked  up  the  avenues.  The 
marvelous  rapidity  with  which  such  affairs  may  be 

243 


PARROT  &  CO. 

spread  broadcast  these  days  is  the  first  wonder  in  a 
new  epoch  of  wonders.  From  Irkoutsh  to  Auk- 
land,  from  St.  Johns  to  Los  Angeles,  wherever  a 
newspaper  was  published,  the  news  flew.  Within 
twenty-four  hours  it  would  be  as  difficult  to  draw 
against  that  letter  as  it  would  be  to  transmute  baser 
metals  into  gold. 

At  half  past  ten  Warrington,  apparently  none  the 
worse  for  a  sleepless  night,  entered  the  private  of 
fice  of  the  consul-general  who,  gravely  and  with 
studied  politeness,  handed  to  him  an  unopened  cable 
gram. 

"  I  rather  preferred  to  let  you  open  it,  Mr.  War 
rington,"  he  said. 

"  Still,  it  might  be  something  of  your  own,"  re 
plied  Warrington.  He  noted  the  lack  of  cordiality, 
but  with  passive  regret. 

"  No  cablegram  would  come  to  me  from  the  de 
partment,  especially  as  the  diplomatic-pouch,  as  we 
call  the  mail-bag,  arrives  Monday.  Open  it.  I 
wish  you  good  luck,"  a  little  more  kindly. 

"May  I  sit  down?" 

"  To  be  sure  you  may." 

The  consul-general  recovered  his  pen  and  pre- 
244 


It  was  Warrington's  letter 


THE  ANSWERING  CABLE 

tended  to  become  absorbed  in  the  litter  of  papers  on 
his  desk.  But  in  truth  he  could  see  nothing  save  the 
young  man's  face :  calm,  unmoved,  expressing  negli 
gent  interest  in  what  should  be  the  most  vital  thing 
in  his  existence,  next  to  life.  If  the  man  hadn't 
met  Elsa,  to  her  interest  and  to  his  own  alarm,  he 
would  have  been  as  affable  as  deep  in  his  heart  he 
wanted  to  be.  A  minute  passed.  It  seemed  to  take 
a  very  long  time.  He  tried  to  resist  the  inclination 
to  turn  his  head,  but  the  drawing  of  curiosity  was  ir 
resistible.  What  he  saw  only  added  to  his  general 
mystification.  The  slip  of  paper  hung  pendulent 
in  Warrington's  hand ;  the  other  hand  was  hidden  in 
his  beard,  while  his  eyes  seemed  to  be  studying  seri 
ously  the  medallion  in  the  Kirmanshah.  A  fine 
specimen  of  a  man,  mused  the  consul-general,  in 
credibly  wholesome  despite  his  ten  years'  knocking 
about  in  this  ungodly  part  of  the  world.  It  was  a 
pity.  They  had  evidently  refused  to  compromise. 

"Bad  news?" 

Warrington  stood  up  with  sudden  and  surprising 
animation  in  his  face.  "  Read  it,"  he  said. 

"If  Ellison  will  make  restitution  in  person,  yes. 

"  ANDES." 

245 


PARROT  &  CO. 

The  consul-general  jumped  to  his  feet  and  held 
out  his  hand.  "  I  am  glad,  very  glad.  Everything 
will  turn  out  all  right  now.  If  you  wish,  I'll  tell 
Miss  Chetwood  the  news." 

"  I  was  going  to  ask  you  to  do  that,"  responded 
Warrington.  The  mention  of  Elsa  took  the  bright 
ness  out  of  his  face.  "  Tell  her  that  Parrot  &  Co. 
will  always  remember  her  kindness,  and  ask  her  to 
forgive  a  lonely  chap  for  having  caused  her  any 
embarrassment  through  her  goodness  to  him.  I 
have  decided  not  to  see  Miss  Chetwood  again." 

"  You  are  a  strong  man,  Mr.  Warrington." 

"  Warrington  ?  My  name  is  Ellison,  Paul  War 
rington  Ellison.  After  all,  I'm  so  used  to  Warring- 
ton,  that  I  may  as  well  let  well  enough  alone. 
There  is  one  more  favor ;  do  not  tell  Miss  Chetwood 
that  my  name  is  Ellison." 

"  I  should  use  my  own  name,  if  I  were  you. 
Why,  man,  you  can  return  to  the  States  as  if  you 
had  departed  but  yesterday.  The  world  forgets 
quickly.  People  will  be  asking  each  other  what  it 
was  that  you  did.  Then  I  shall  bid  Miss  Chetwood 
good-by  for  you?" 

246 


THE  ANSWERING  CABLE 

"  Yes.  I  am  going  to  jog  it  home.  I  want  to 
travel  first-class,  here,  there,  wherever  fancy  takes 
me.  It's  so  long  since  I've  known  absolute  ease 
and  comfort.  I  wish  to  have  time  to  readjust  my 
self  to  the  old  ways.  I  was  once  a  luxury-loving 
chap.  I  sail  at  dawn  for  Saigon.  I  may  knock 
around  in  Siam  for  a  few  weeks.  After  that,  I 
don't  know  where  I'll  go.  Of  course  I  shall  keep 
the  Andes  advised  of  my  whereabouts,  from  time 
to  time." 

"  Another  man  would  be  in  a  hurry."  It  was  on 
the  tip  of  his  tongue  to  tell  Warrington  what  he 
knew  of  the  Andes  Construction  Company,  but 
something  held  back  the  words,  a  fear  that  Warring- 
ton  might  change  his  mind  about  seeing  Elsa. 
"  Well,  wherever  you  go  and  whatever  you  do,  good 
luck  go  with  you." 

"  There  are  good  men  in  this  world,  sir,  and  I 
shall  always  remember  you  as  one  of  them." 

"  By  the  way,  that  man  Mallow ;  have  you  met 
him  yet  ?  " 

The  quizzical  expression  in  his  eyes  made  War 
rington  laugh.  "  No." 

247 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"I  was  in  hopes  ..."  The  consul-general 
paused,  but  Warrington  ignored  the  invitation  to 
make  known  his  intentions. 

He  shunted  further  inquiry  by  saying :     "  A  let 
ter  of  credit  of  mine  was  stolen  last  night.     I  had  a 
tussle  in  the  room,  and  was  rather  getting  the  best 
of  it     The  thug  slipped  suddenly  away.     Probably 
hid  the  letter  in  his  loin-cloth." 
"  That's  unfortunate." 
"  In  a  way.     Ten  thousand  pounds." 
"Good  lord!" 

"  I  have  sent  out  a  general  stop-order.  No  one 
will  be  able  to  draw  against  it.  The  sum  will  create 
suspicion  anywhere." 

"  Have  you  any  idea  who  was  back  of  the  thief? 
Is  there  any  way  I  can  be  of  service  to  you?  " 

"  Yes.     I'll  make  you  temporary   trustee.     I've 
offered  two  hundred  pounds  for  the  recovery,  and 
I'll  leave  that  amount  with  you  before  I  go." 
"  And  if  the  letter  turns  up?  " 
"  Send  it  direct  to  the  Andes  people.     After  a 
lapse  of  a  few  weeks  the  Bank  of  Burma  will  reissue 
the  letter.     It  will  simmer  down  to  a  matter  of  in 
convenience.     The  offer  of  two  hundred  is  honestly 

248 


THE  ANSWERING  CABLE 

made,  but  only  to  learn  if  my  suspicions  are  cor 
rect." 

"Then  you  suspect  some  one?"  quickly. 

"  I  really  suspect  Mallow  and  a  gambler  named 
Craig,  but  no  court  would  hold  them  upon  the  evi 
dence  I  have.  It's  my  belief  that  it's  a  practical 
joke  which  measures  up  to  the  man  who  perpetrated 
it.  He  must  certainly  realize  that  a  letter  so  large 
will  be  eagerly  watched  for." 

"  I  shall  gladly  take  charge  of  the  matter  here 
for  you.  I  suppose  that  you  will  eventually  meet 
Mallow?" 

"  Eventually  suggests  a  long  time,"  grimly. 

"  Ah  ...  Is  there  .  .  .  Do  you  think  there  will 
be  any  need  of  a  watch  -holder  ?" 

"  I  honestly  believe  you  would  like  to  see  me  have 
it  out  with  him !  " 

"  I  honestly  would.  But  unfortunately  the 
dignity  of  my  office  forbids.  He  has  gone  up  and 
down  the  Settlements,  bragging  and  domineering 
and  fighting.  I  have  been  given  to  understand  that 
he  has  never  met  his  match." 

"  It's  a  long  lane  that  has  no  turning.  After  all," 
Warrington  added,  letting  go  his  reserve;  "you're 

249 


PARROT  &  CO. 

the  only  friend  I  have.  Why  shouldn't  I  tell  you 
that  immediately  I  am  going  out  in  search  of  him, 
and  that  when  I  find  him  I  am  going  to  give  him 
the  worst  walloping  he  ever  heard  tell  of.  The 
Lord  didn't  give  me  all  this  bone  and  muscle  for  the 
purpose  of  walking  around  trouble.  Doesn't  sound 
very  dignified,  does  it?  A  dock-walloper's  idea; 
eh?  Well,  among  other  things,  I've  been  a  dock- 
walloper,  a  beach-comber  by  force  of  circumstance, 
not  above  settling  arguments  with  fists,  or  boots,  or 
staves.  No  false  modesty  for  me.  I  confess  I've 
been  mauled  some,  but  I've  never  been  whipped  in 
a  man  to  man  fight.  It  was  generally  a  scrap  for 
the  survival  of  the  fittest.  But  I  am  going  into  this 
affair  .  .  .  Well,  perhaps  it  wouldn't  interest  you 
to  know  why.  There  are  two  sides  to  every  Water 
loo  ;  and  I  am  going  to  chase  Mallow  into  Paris,  so 
to  speak.  Oh,  he  and  I  shall  take  away  pleasant 
recollections  of  each  other.  And  who's  to  care  ? " 
with  a  careless  air  that  deceived  the  other. 

"  I  don't  believe  that  Mallow  will  fight  square  at 
a  pinch." 

"  I  shan't  give  him  time  to  fight  otherwise." 
250 


THE  ANSWERING  CABLE 

"  I  ought  not  to  want  to  see  you  at  it,  but,  hang 
it,  I  do!" 

"  Human  nature.  It's  a  pleasurable  sensation  to 
back  up  right  by  might.  Four  years  ago  I  vowed 
that  some  day  I'd  meet  him  on  equal  terms. 
There's  a  raft  of  things  on  the  slate,  for  he  has 
been  unspeakable  kinds  of  a  rascal;  beating  harm 
less  coolies  .  .  .  and  women.  I  may  not  see  you 
again.  If  the  letter  of  credit  turns  up,  you  know 
what  to  do  with  it.  I'm  keen  to  get  started.  Good- 
by,  and  thank  you." 

A  hand-clasp,  and  he  was  gone. 

"  I  wish,"  thought  the  consul-general,  "  I  could 
have  told  him  about  the  way  the  scoundrel  spoke  of 
Elsa." 

And  Warrington,  as  he  sought  the  cafe-veranda, 
wished  he  could  have  told  the  basic  truth  of  his 
fighting  mood :  the  look  Mallow  had  given  Elsa  that 
day  in  Penang.  Diligently  he  began  the  search. 
Mallow  and  Craig  were  still  in  their  rooms,  doubt 
less  sleeping  off  the  debauch  of  the  preceding  night. 
He  saw  that  he  must  wait.  Luncheon  he  had  in 
town. 

251 


.PARROT  &  CO. 

At  four  o'clock  his  inquiries  led  him  into  the  bil 
liard-annex.  His  throat  tightened  a  little  as  he  dis 
covered  the  two  men  engaged  in  a  game  of  Ameri 
can  billiards.  He  approached  the  table  quietly. 
Their  interest  in  the  game  was  deep,  possibly  due  to 
the  wager  laid  upon  the  result ;  so  they  did  not  ob 
serve  him.  He  let  Mallow  finish  his  run.  Liquor 
had  no  effect  upon  the  man's  nerves,  evidently,  for 
his  eyes  and  stroke  were  excellent.  A  miscue 
brought  an  oath  from  his  lips,  and  he  banged  his  cue 
upon  the  floor. 

"  Rotten  luck,"  said  Warrington  sympathetically, 
with  the  devil's  banter  in  his  voice. 


XVIII 

THE   BATTLE 

MALLOW  spun  around,  stared  for  a  moment, 
then  grinned  evilly.  "  Here's  our  crow  at 
last,  Craig." 

"  Speaking  of  birds  of  ill-repute,  the  crow  passes 
his  admiration  to  the  kite  and  the  vulture."  War- 
rington  spoke  coolly. 

"  Hey,  boy;  the  chit! "  called  Mallow. 

"  No,  no,"  protested  Warrington ;  "  by  all  means 
finish  the  game.  I've  all  the  time  in  the  world." 

Mallow  looked  at  Craig,  who  scowled  back.  He 
was  beginning  to  grow  weary  at  the  sight  of  War 
rington,  bobbing  up  here,  bobbing  up  there,  always 
with  a  subtle  menace. 

"  What's  the  odds  ? "  said  Mallow  jovially. 
"  Only  twenty  points  to  go.  Your  shot." 

Craig  chalked  his  cue  and  scored  a  run  of  five. 
Mallow  ran  three,  missed  and  swore  amiably. 

253 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Craig  got  the  balls  into  a  corner  and  finished  his 
string. 

"  That'll  be  five  pounds,"  he  said. 

"  And  fifty  quid  for  me,"  added  Warrington, 
smiling,  though  his  eyes  were  as  blue  and  hard  as 
Artie  ice. 

"  I'll  see  you  comfortably  broiled  in  hell,"  replied 
Mallow,  as  he  tossed  five  sovereigns  to  Craig. 
"  Now,  what  else  is  on  your  mind  ?  " 

Warrington  took  out  the  cigar-band  and  ex 
hibited  it.  "  I  found  that  in  my  room  last  night. 
You're  one  of  the  few,  Mallow,  who  smoke  them  out 
here.  He  was  a  husky  Chinese,  but  not  husky 
enough.  Makes  you  turn  a  bit  yellow;  eh,  Craig, 
you  white-livered  cheat?  You  almost  got  my 
money-belt,  but  almost  is  never  quite.  The  letter 
of  credit  is  being  reissued.  It  might  have  been  rob 
bery;  it  might  have  been  just  deviltry;  just  for  the 
sport  of  breaking  a  man.  Anyhow,  you  didn't  suc 
ceed.  Suppose  we  take  a  little  jaunt  out  to  where 
they're  building  the  new  German  Lloyd  dock? 
There'll  be  no  one  working  at  this  time  of  day. 
Plenty  of  shade." 

For  a  moment  the  click  of  the  balls  on  the  other 
254 


Warrington  took   out   the  band 


THE  BATTLE 

tables  was  the  only  sound.  Craig  broke  the  tableau 
by  reaching  for  his  glass  of  whisky,  which  he 
emptied.  He  tried  to  assume  a  nonchalant  air,  but 
his  hand  shook  as  he  replaced  the  glass  on  the 
tabouret.  It  rolled  off  to  the  floor  and  tinkled  into 
pieces. 

"  Nerves  a  bit  rocky,  eh  ?  "  Warrington  laughed 
sardonically. 

"  You're  screeching  in  the  wrong  jungle,  Par 
rot,  old  top,"  said  Mallow,  who,  as  he  did  not  be 
lieve  in  ghosts,  was  physically  nor  morally  afraid 
of  anything.  "  Though,  you  have  my  word  for  it 
that  I'd  like  to  see  you  lose  every  cent  of  your 
damned  oil  fluke." 

"  Don't  doubt  it." 

"  But,"  Mallow  went  on,  "  if  you're  wanting  a 
little  argument  that  doesn't  require  pencils  or 
voices,  why,  you're  on.  You  don't  object  to  my 
friend  Craig  coming  along?  " 

"  On  the  contrary,  he'll  make  a  good  witness  of 
what  happens." 

"  The  chit,  boy ! "  Mallow  paid  the  reckoning. 
"  Now,  then,  come  on.  Three  rickshaws ! "  he 
called. 

255 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  Make  it  two,"  said  Warrington.  "  I  have 
mine." 

"All  fine  and  dandy!" 

The  barren  plot  of  ground  back  of  the  dock  was 
deserted.  Warrington  jumped  from  his  rickshaw 
and  divested  himself  of  his  coat  and  flung  his  hat  be 
side  it.  Gleefully  as  a  boy  Mallow  did  likewise. 
Warrington  then  bade  the  coolies  to  move  back  to 
the  road. 

"  Rounds  ?  "  inquired  Mallow. 

"  You  filthy  scoundrel,  you  know  very  well  that 
there  won't  be  any  rules  to  this  game.  Don't  you 
think  I  know  you  ?  You'll  have  a  try  at  my  knee- 
pans,  if  I  give  you  the  chance.  You'll  stick  your 
finger  into  my  eyes,  if  I  let  you  get  close  enough. 
I  doubt  if  in  all  your  life  you  ever  fought  a  man 
squarely."  Warrington  rolled  up  his  sleeves  and 
was  pleased  to  note  the  dull  color  of  Mallow's  face. 
He  wanted  to  rouse  the  brute  in  the  man,  then  he 
would  have  him  at  fyis  mercy.  "  I  swore  four  years 
ago  that  I'd  make  you  pay  for  that  night." 

"You  scum!"  roared  Mallow;  "you'll  never  be 
a  whole  man  when  they  carry  you  away  from  here." 

"  Wait  and  see." 

256 


THE  BATTLE 

On  the  way  to  the  dock  Warrington  had  mapped 
out  his  campaign.  Fair  play  from  either  of  these 
men  was  not  to  be  entertained  for  a  moment. 
One  was  naturally  a  brute  and  the  other  was  a 
coward.  They  would  not  hesitate  at  any  means  to 
defeat  him.  And  he  knew  what  defeat  would  mean 
at  their  hands :  disfigurement,  probably. 

"  Will  you  take  a  shilling  for  your  fifty  quid  ?  " 
jeered  Craig.  He  was  going  to  enjoy  this,  for  he 
had  not  the  least  doubt  as  to  the  outcome.  Mallow 
was  without  superior  in  a  rough  and  tumble  fight. 

Warrington  did  not  reply.  He  walked  cautiously 
toward  Mallow.  This  maneuver  brought  Craig 
within  reach.  It  was  not  a  fair  blow,  but  Warring- 
ton  delivered  it  without  the  least  compunction.  It 
struck  Craig  squarely  on  the  jaw.  Lightly  as  a  cat 
Warrington  jumped  back.  Craig's  knees  doubled 
under  him  and  he  toppled  forward  on  his  face. 

"  Now,  Mallow,  you  and  I  alone,  with  no  one  to 
jump  on  my  back  when  I'm  looking  elsewhere ! " 

Mallow,  appreciating  the  trick,  swore  foully,  and 
rushed.  Warrington  jabbed  with  his  left  and  side 
stepped.  One  thing  he  must  do  and  that  was  to 
keep  Mallow  from  getting  into  close  quarters. 

257 


PARROT  &  CO. 

The  copra-grower  was  more  than  his  match  in  the 
knowledge  of  those  Oriental  devices  that  usually 
cripple  a  man  for  life.  He  must  wear  him  down 
scientifically ;  he  must  depend  upon  his  ring-general 
ship.  In  his  youth  Warrington  had  been  a  skilful 
boxer.  He  could  now  back  this  skill  with  rugged 
health  and  a  blow  that  had  a  hundred  and  eighty 
pounds  behind  it. 

From  ordinary  rage,  Mallow  fell  into  a  frenzy; 
and  frenzy  never  won  a  ring-battle.  Time  after 
time  he  endeavored  to  grapple,  but  always  that  left 
stopped  him.  Warrington  played  for  his  face,  and 
to  each  jab  he  added  a  taunt.  "  That  for  the  little 
Cingalese ! "  "  Count  that  one  for  Wheedon's 
broken  knees!"  "And  wouldn't  San  admire  that? 
Remember  'her?  The  little  Japanese  girl  whose 
thumbs  you  broke?"  "Here's  one  for  me!"  It 
was  not  dignified;  but  Warrington  stubbornly  re 
fused  to  look  back  upon  this  day  either  with  shame 
or  regret.  Jab- jab,  cut  and  slash!  went  the  left. 
There  was  no  more  mercy  in  the  mind  back  of  it 
than  might  be  found  in  the  sleek  felines  who  stalked 
the  jungles  north.  Doggedly  Mallow  fought  on, 
hoping  for  his  chance.  He  tried  every  trick  he 

258 


THE  BATTLE 

knew,  but  he  could  only  get  so  near.  The  ring  was 
as  wide  as  the  world ;  there  were  no  corners  to  make 
grappling  a  possibility. 

Some  of  his  desperate  blows  got  through.  The 
bezel  of  his  ring  laid  open  Warrington's  forehead. 
He  was  brave  enough;  but  he  began  to  realize  that 
this  was  not  the  same  man  he  had  turned  out  into 
the  night,  four  years  ago.  And  the  pain  and 
ignominy  he  had  forced  upon  others  was  now  being 
returned  to  him.  Warrington  would  have  pro 
longed  the  battle  had  he  not  seen  Craig  getting  diz 
zily  to  his  feet.  It  was  time  to  end  it.  He  feinted 
swiftly.  Mallow,  expecting  a  body-blow,  dropped 
his  guard.  Warrington,  as  he  struck,  felt  the  bones 
in  his  hand  crack.  Mallow  went  over  upon  his  back, 
fairly  lifted  off  his  feet.  He  was  tough;  an  ordi 
nary  man  would  have  died. 

"  I  believe  that  squares  accounts,"  said  Warring- 
ton,  speaking  to  Craig.  "  If  you  hear  of  me  in 
America,  in  Europe,  anywhere,  keep  away  from  the 
places  I'm  likely  to  go.  Tell  him,"  with  an  indiffer 
ent  jerk  of  his  head  toward  the  insensible  Mallow, 
"  tell  him  that  I  give  him  that  fifty  pounds  with  the 
greatest  good  pleasure.  Sorry  I  can't  wait." 

259 


PARROT  &  CO. 

He  trotted  back  to  his  rickshaw,  wiped  the  blood 
from  his  face,  put  on  his  hat  and  coat,  and  ordered 
the  respectful  coolie  to  hurry  back  to  town.  He 
never  saw  Mallow  or  Crair  again.  The  battle  it 
self  became  a  hazy  incident.  In  life  affairs  of  this 
order  generally  have  abrupt  endings. 

And  all  that  day  Elsa  had  been  waiting  patiently 
to  hear  sounds  of  him  in  the  next  room.  Never 
could  she  recall  such  long  weary  hours.  Time  and 
again  she  changed  a  piece  of  ribbon,  a  bit  of  lace, 
and  twice  she  changed  her  dress,  all  for  the  purpose 
of  making  the  hours  pass  more  quickly.  She  had 
gone  down  to  luncheon,  but  Warrington  had  not 
come  in.  After  luncheon  she  had  sent  out  for  half 
a  dozen  magazines.  Beyond  the  illustrations  she 
never  knew  what  they  contained.  Over  and  over 
she  conned  the  set  phrases  she  was  going  to  say 
when  finally  he  came.  Whenever  Martha  ap 
proached,  Elsa  told  her  that  she  wanted  nothing, 
that  she  was  head-achy,  and  wanted  to  be  left  alone. 
Discreetly  Martha  vanished. 

To  prevent  the  possibility  of  missing  Warring- 
ton,  Elsa  had  engaged  the  room  boy  to  loiter  about 

260 


She  changed  a  ribbon 


THE  BATTLE 

down-stairs  and  to  report  to  her  the  moment  War- 
rington  arrived.  The  boy  came  pattering  up  at 
a  quarter  to  six. 

"  He  come.  He  downside.  I  go,  he  come  top 
side?" 

"  No.     That  will  be  all." 

The  boy  kotowed,  and  Elsa  gave  him  a  sover 
eign. 

The  following  ten  minutes  tested  her  patience  to 
the  utmost.  Presently  she  heard  the  banging  of  a 
trunk-lid.  He  was  there.  And  now  that  he  was 
there,  she,  who  had  always  taken  pride  in  her  lack 
of  feminine  nerves,  found  herself  in  the  grip  of  a 
panic  that  verged  on  hysteria.  Her  heart  flut 
tered  and  missed  a  beat.  It  had  been  so  easy  to 
plan !  She  was  afraid.  Perhaps  the  tension  of 
waiting  all  these  hours  was  the  cause.  With  an 
angry  gesture  she  strove  to  dismiss  the  feeling  of 
trepidation  by  walking  resolutely  to  her  door.  Out 
side  she  stopped. 

What  was  she  going  to  say  to  him?  The  trem 
bling  that  struck  at  her  knees  was  wholly  a  new 
sensation.  Presently  the  tremor  died  away,  but  it 
left  her  weak.  She  stepped  toward  his  door  and 

261 


PARROT  &  CO. 

knocked  gently  on  the  jamb.     No  one  answered. 
She  knocked  again,  louder. 

"Come  in!" 

"  It  wouldn't  be  proper,"  she  replied,  with  a  flash 
of  her  old-time  self.  ".Won't  you  please  come 
out?" 

She  heard  something  click  as  it  struck  the  floor. 
(It  was  Warrington's  cutty  which  he  had  carried  for 
seven  years,  now  in  smithereens. )  She  saw  a  hand, 
raw  knuckled  and  bleeding  slightly,  catch  at  the 
curtain  and  swing  it  back  rattling  upon  its 
rings. 

"  Miss  Chetwood?  "  he  said. 

"  Yes  .  .  .  Oh,  you've  been  hurt ! "  she  ex 
claimed,  noting  the  gash  upon  his  forehead.  A 
strip  of  tissue-paper  (in  lieu  of  court-plaster)  lay 
soaking  upon  the  wound :  a  trick  learned  in  the  old 
days  when  razors  grew  dull  over  night. 

"  Hurt  ?  Oh,  I  ran  against  something  when  I 
wasn't  looking,"  he  explained  lamely.  Then  he 
added  eagerly :  "  I  did  not  know  that  you  were  on 
this  gallery.  First  time  I've  put  up  at  a  hotel  in 
years."  It  did  not  serve. 

"  You  have  been  fighting !     Your  hand !  " 
262 


THE  BATTLE 

He  looked  at  the  hand  dumbly.  How  keen  her 
eyes  were. 

"I  know!" 

"  You  do  ?  "  inanely. 

"Was  it  ...  Mallow?" 

"  Yes." 

"  Did  you  .  .  .  whip  him  ?  " 

"I  ...  did,"  imitating  her  tone  and  hesitance. 
It  was  the  wisest  thing  he  could  have  done,  for  it 
relaxed  the  nerves  of  both  of  them. 

Elsa  smiled,  smiled  and  forgot  the  substance  of 
all  her  rehearsals,  forgot  the  letter  of  credit,  warm 
with  the  heat  of  her  heart.  "I  am  a  pagan,"  she 
confessed. 

"  And  I  am  a  barbarian.  I  ought  to  be  horribly 
ashamed  of  myself." 

"But  you  are  not?" 

For  a  moment  their  eyes  drew.  Hers  were  like 
dark  whirlpools,  and  he  felt  himself  drifting  help 
lessly,  irresistibly.  He  dropped  his  hands  upon  the 
railing  and  gripped;  the  illusion  of  fighting  a  cur 
rent  was  almost  real  to  him.  Every  fiber  in  his 
body  cried  out  against  the  struggle. 

"  No,  not  in  the  least,"  he  said,  looking  toward 
263 


PARROT  &  CO. 

the  sunset.     "  Fighting  is  riff-raff  business,  and  I'm 
only  a  riff-raffer  at  best." 

"  Rather,  aren't  you  Paul  Ellison,  brother,  twin 
brother,  of  the  man  I  said  I  was  going  home  to 
marry  ?  " 

How  far  away  her  voice  seemed!  The  throb  in 
his  forehead  and  the  dull  ache  over  his  heart,  where 
some  of  the  sledge-hammer  blows  had  gone  home, 
he  no  longer  felt. 

"  Don't  deny  it.  It  would  be  useless.  Knowing 
your  brother  as  I  do,  who  could  doubt  it  ?  " 

He  remained  dumb. 

"  I  couldn't  understand,  just  simply  couldn't. 
They  never  told  me ;  in  all  the  years  I  have  known 
them,  in  all  the  years  I  have  partly  made  their  home 
my  own,  there  was  nothing.  Not  a  trinket.  Once 
I  saw  a  camera-picture.  I  know  now  why  Arthur 
snatched  it  from  my  hand.  It  was  you.  You  were 
bending  over  an  engineer's  tripod.  Even  now  I 
should  have  doubted  had  I  not  recalled  what  you 
said  one  day  on  board,  that  you  had  built  bridges. 
Arthur  couldn't  build  anything  stronger  than  an 
artist's  easel.  You  are  Paul  Ellison." 

264 


•  .       ,  'I     v*J  >  w  W   I  *»'•—'• 

He  remained   dumb 


THE  BATTLE 

"  I  am  sorry  you  found  out." 

"Why?" 

"  Because  I  wanted  to  be  no  more  than  an  incident 
in  your  life,  just  Parrot  &  Co." 

"  Parrot  &  Co. !  " 

It  was  like  a  caress ;  but  he  was  too  dull  to  sense 
it,  and  she  was  unconscious  of  the  inflection.  The 
burning  sunshine  gave  to  his  hair  and  beard  the 
glistening  of  ruddy  gold.  Her  imagination,  full  of 
unsuspected  poetry  at  this  moment,  clothed  him  in 
the  metals  of  a  viking.  There  were  other  whirlpools 
beside  those  in  her  eyes,  but  Elsa  did  not  sense  the 
drifting  as  he  had  done.  It  was  insidious. 

"  An  incident,"  she  repeated. 

"Could  I  be  more?"  with  sudden  fierceness. 
"  Could  I  be  more  in  any  woman's  life  ?  I  take  my 
self  for  what  I  am,  but  the  world  will  always  take 
me  for  what  I  have  done.  Yes,  I  am  Paul  Ellison, 
forgotten,  I  hope,  by  all  those  who  knew  me.  Why 
did  you  seek  me  that  night?  Why  did  you  come 
into  my  life  to  make  bitterness  become  despair? 
The  blackest  kind  of  despair?  Elsa  Chetwood, 
Elsa !  .  .  .  Well,  the  consul  is  right.  I  am  a  strong 

265 


PARROT  &  CO. 

man.  I  can  go  out  of  your  life,  at  least  physi 
cally.  I  can  say  that  I  love  you,  and  I  can  add  to 
that  good-by !  " 

He  wheeled  abruptly  and  went  quickly  down  the 
gallery,  bareheaded,  without  any  destination  in  his 
mind,  with  only  one  thought,  to  leave  her  before  he 
lost  the  last  shreds  of  his  self-control. 

It  was  then  that  Elsa  knew  her  heart.  She  had 
spoken  truly.  She  was  a  pagan :  for,  had  he  turned 
and  held  out  his  hands,  she  would  have  gone  to  him, 
gone  with  him,  anywhere  in  the  world,  lawfully  or 
unlawfully. 


XIX 

TWO   LETTERS 

ELSA  sang.  She  flew  to  her  mirror.  The  face 
was  hers  and  yet  not  hers.  Always  her  mir 
ror  had  told  her  that  she  was  beautiful;  but  up  to 
this  moment  her  emotion  had  recorded  nothing 
stronger  than  placid  content.  Now  a  supreme  glad 
ness  filled  and  tingled  her  because  her  beauty  was 
indisputable.  When  Martha  came  to  help  her  dress 
for  dinner,  she  still  sang.  It  was  a  wordless  song, 
a  melody  that  every  human  heart  contains  and  which 
finds  expression  but  once.  Elsa  loved. 

Doubt,  that  arch-enemy  of  love  and  faith  and 
hope,  doubt  had  spread  its  dark  pinions  and  flown 
away  into  yesterdays.  She  felt  the  zest  and  exhil 
aration  of  a  bird  just  given  its  freedom.  Once  she 
slipped  from  Martha's  cunning  hands  and  ran  out 
upon  the  gallery. 

"  Elsa,  your  waist !  " 

Elsa  laughed  and  held  out  her  bare  arms  to  the 
267 


PARROT  &  CO. 

faded  sky  where,  but  a  little  while  since,  the  sun 
had  burned  a  pathway  down  the  world.  All  in  an 
hour,  one  small  trifling  space  of  time,  this  wonder 
ful,  magical  thing  had  happened.  He  loved  her. 
There  had  been  hunger  for  her  in  his  voice,  in  his 
blue  eyes.  Presently  she  was  going  to  make  him 
feel  very  sorry  that  he  had  not  taken  her  in  his 
arms,  then  and  there. 

"Oh,  beautiful  world!" 

"  Elsa,  what  in  mercy's  name  possesses  you  ?  " 

"  I  am  mad,  Martha,  mad  as  a  March  hare,  what 
ever  that  is !  "  She  loved. 

"  People  will  think  so,  if  they  happen  to  come 
along  and  see  that  waist.  Please  come  instantly  and 
let  me  finish  hooking  it.  You  act  like  you  did  when 
you  were  ten.  You  never  would  stand  still." 

"  Yes,  and  I  remember  how  you  used  to  yank  my 
pig-tails.  I  haven't  really  forgiven  you  yet." 

"  I  believe  it's  going  home  that's  the  matter  with 
you.  Well,  I  for  one  shall  be  glad  to  leave  this 
horrid  country.  Chinamen  everywhere,  in  your 
room,  at  your  table,  under  your  feet.  And  in  the 
streets,  Chinamen  and  Malays  and  Hindus,  and  I 
don't  know  what  other  outlandish  races  and  tribes. 

268 


TWO  LETTERS 

.  .  .  Why,  what's  this?"  cried  Martha,  bending  to 
the  floor. 

Elsa  ran  back  to  the  room.  She  gave  a  little  gasp 
when  she  saw  what  it  was  that  Martha  was  holding 
out  for  her  inspection.  It  was  Warrington's  letter 
of  credit.  She  had  totally  forgotten  its  existence. 
Across  the  face  of  the  thick  Manila  envelope  (more 
or  less  covered  with  numerals  that  had  been  scrib 
bled  there  by  Warrington  in  an  attempt  to  compute 
the  interest  at  six  per  cent.)  which  contained  the 
letters  of  credit  and  identification  was  written  in  a 
clerical  hand  the  owner's  name.  Martha  could  not 
help  seeing  it.  Elsa  explained  frankly  what  it  was 
and  how  it  had  come  into  her  possession.  Martha 
was  horrified. 

"  Elsa,  they  might  have  entered  your  room ;  and 
your  jewels  lying  about  everywhere!  How  could 
you  be  so  careless  ?  " 

"  But  they  didn't.  I'll  return  this  to  Mr.  War 
rington  in  the  morning;  perhaps  to-night,  if  I  see 
him  at  dinner." 

"  He  was  in  the  next  room,  and  we  never  knew 
it !  "  The  final  hook  snapped  into  place.  "  Well, 
Wednesday  our  boat  leaves ;  "  as  if  this  put  a  period 

269 


PARROT  &  CO. 

to  all  further  discussion  anent  Mr.  Parrot  &  Co. 
Nothing  very  serious  could  happen  between  that  time 
and  now. 

"  Wednesday  night."  Elsa  began  to  sing  again, 
but  not  so  joyously.  The  petty  things  of  every-day 
life  were  lifting  their  heads  once  more,  and  of  ne 
cessity  she  must  recognize  them. 

She  sat  at  the  consul-general's  table,  informally. 
There  was  gay  inconsequential  chatter,  an  exchange 
of  recollections  and  comparisons  of  cities  and  coun 
tries  they  had  visited  at  separate  times ;  but  neither 
she  nor  he  mentioned  the  chief  subject  of  their 
thoughts.  She  refrained  because  of  a  strange  yet 
natural  shyness  of  a  woman  who  has  found  herself ; 
and  he,  because  from  his  angle  of  vision  it  was  best 
that  Warrington  should  pass  out  of  her  life  as  sud 
denly  and  mysteriously  as  he  had  entered  it.  Had 
he  spoken  frankly  he  would  have  saved  Elsa  many  a 
bitter  heartache,  many  a  weary  day. 

Warrington  was  absent,  and  so  were  his  enemies. 
If  there  was  any  truth  in  reincarnation,  Elsa  was 
confident  that  in  the  splendid  days  of  Rome  she  had 
beaten  her  pink  palms  in  applause  of  the  gladiators. 
Pagan;  she  was  all  of  that;  for  she  knew  that  she 

270 


TWO  LETTERS 

could  have  looked  upon  Mallow's  face  with  more 
than  ordinary  interest.  Never  more  would  her 
cheeks  burn  at  the  recollection  of  the  man's  look. 

She  was  twenty-five ;  she  had  waited  longer  than 
most  women;  the  mistake  of  haste  would  never  be 
hers.  Nor  did  she  close  her  eyes  to  the  future. 
She  knew  exactly  what  the  world  was,  and  how  it 
would  act.  She  was  not  making  any  sacrifices. 
She  was  not  one  of  those  women,  lightly  balanced, 
who  must  have  excitement  in  order  to  exist ;  she  de 
pended  upon  herself  for  her  amusements.  With 
the  man  she  loved  she  would  have  shared  a  hut  in 
the  wilderness  and  been  happy.  One  of  the  things 
that  had  drawn  her  to  Arthur  had  been  his  quiet 
love  of  the  open,  his  interest  in  flowers  and  forests 
and  streams.  Society,  that  division  of  classes,  she 
had  accepted,  but  to  it  she  had  never  bowed  down. 
How  very  well  she  could  do  without  it !  She  would 
go  with  him  and  help  him  build  his  bridges,  help  him 
to  fight  torrents  and  hurricanes,  and  to  forget. 
That  he  had  bidden  her  farewell  was  nothing.  She 
would  seek  him.  In  her  pursuit  of  happiness  she 
was  not  going  to  permit  false  modesty  to  intervene. 

In  her  room,  later,  she  wrote  two  letters.  The 
271 


PARROT  &  CO. 

one  to  Arthur  covered  several  pages ;  the  other  con 
sisted  of  a  single  line.  She  went  down  to  the  of 
fice,  mailed  Arthur's  letter  and  left  the  note  in  War- 
rington's  key-box.  It  was  not  an  intentionally  cruel 
letter  she  had  written  to  the  man  in  America;  but 
if  she  had  striven  toward  that  effect  she  could  not 
have  achieved  it  more  successfully.  She  cried  out 
against  the  way  he  had  treated  his  brother,  the  false 
pride  that  had  hidden  all  knowledge  of  him  from 
her.  Where  were  the  charity  and  mercy  of  which 
he  had  so  often  preached?  Pages  of  burning  re 
proaches  which  seared  the  soul  of  the  man  who  read 
them.  She  did  not  confide  the  state  of  her  heart. 
It  was  not  necessary.  The  arraignment  of  the  one 
and  the  defense  of  the  other  were  sufficiently  illu 
minating. 

Soundly  the  happy  sleep.  She  did  not  hear  the 
removal  of  Warrington's  luggage  at  midnight,  for 
it  was  stealthily  done.  Neither  did  she  hear  the 
fretful  mutter  of  the  bird  as  his  master  disturbed 
his  slumbers.  Nothing  warned  her  that  he  intended 
to  spend  the  night  on  board;  that,  having  paid  his 
bill  early  in  the  evening,  her  note  might  have  lain 
in  the  key-box  until  the  crack  of  doom,  so  far  as 

272 


TWO  LETTERS 

he  was  likely  to  know  of  its  existence.  No  angel  of 
pity  whispered  to  her,  Awake!  No  dream-magic 
people  tell  about  drew  for  her  the  picture  of  the 
man  she  loved,  pacing  up  and  down  the  cramped 
deck  of  the  packet-boat,  fighting  a  battle  compared 
to  which  that  of  the  afternoon  was  play.  Elsa  slept 
on,  dreamless. 

When  she  awoke  in  the  morning  she  ran  to  the 
mirror :  all  this  fresh  beauty  she  was  going  to  give 
to  him,  without  condition,  without  reservation,  ab 
solutely  :  as  Aspasia  might  have  rendered  her  charms 
to  Pericles.  She  dressed  quickly,  singing  lowly. 
Fate  makes  us  the  happiest  when  she  is  about  to 
crush  us. 

Usually  she  had  her  breakfast  served  in  the  room, 
but  this  morning  she  was  determined  to  go  down 
stairs.  She  was  excited ;  she  brimmed  with  ex 
uberance;  she  wanted  Romance  to  begin  at  once. 

"  Good-morning,"  she  greeted  the  consul-general, 
who  was  breakfasting  alone. 

"  Well,  you're  an  early  bird !  "  he  replied.  "  Elsa, 
you  are  certainly  beautiful." 

"  Honestly  ?  "  with  real  eagerness. 

"  Honestly.     And  how  you  have  gone  all  these 

273 


PARROT  &  CO. 

years  without  marrying  a  grand  duke,  is  something 
I  can't  figure  out." 

"  Perhaps  I  have  been  waiting  for  the  man. 
There  was  no  real  hurry." 

"  Lucky  chap,  when  you  find  him.  By  the  way, 
our  romantic  Parrot  &  Co.  have  gone." 

"  Gone  ?  "     Elsa  stared  at  him. 

"Yes.     Sailed  for  Saigon  at  dawn." 

"  Saigon,"  she  repeated. 

"  And  I  am  rather  glad  to  see  him  go.  I  was 
afraid  he  might  interest  you  too  much.  You'll  deny 
it,  but  you'll  never  outgrow  the  fairy-story  age." 

"  Saigon." 

"  Good  heavens,  Elsa,  what  is  the  matter?  " 

"  No,  no !  Don't  touch  me.  I'm  not  the  faint 
ing  kind.  Did  you  know  last  night  that  he  was  go 
ing?" 

"Yes." 

"  I  shall  never  forgive  you." 

"  Why,  Elsa  .  .  ." 

"  Never,  never !  You  knew  and  did  not  tell  me. 
Do  you  know  who  Paul  Ellison  is?  He  is  the 
brother  of  the  man  at  home.  You  knew  he  was 
stealing  away  and  did  not  tell  me." 

274 


TWO  LETTERS 

She  could  not  have  made  the  truth  any  plainer 
to  him.  He  sat  back  in  his  chair,  stunned,  voice 
less. 

"  I  am  going  to  my  room,"  she  said.  "  Do  not 
follow.  Please  act  as  if  nothing  had  happened." 

He  saw  her  walk  bravely  the  length  of  the  dining- 
room,  out  into  the  office.  What  a  misfortune! 
Argument  was  out  of  the  question.  Elsa  was  not 
a  child,  to  be  reasoned  with.  She  was  a  woman, 
and  she  had  come  to  a  woman's  understanding  of 
her  heart.  To  place  before  her  the  true  angles  of 
the  case,  the  heartless  banishment  from  the  world 
she  knew,  the  regret  which  would  be  hers  later,  no 
matter  how  much  she  loved  the  man  .  .  .  He 
pushed  back  his  chair,  leaving  his  coffee  un- 
tasted. 

He  possessed  the  deep  understanding  of  the  kindly 
heart,  and  his  one  thought  was  Elsa's  future  happi 
ness.  As  men  go,  Warrington  was  an  honorable 
man ;  honorable  enough  to  run  away  rather  than  risk 
the  danger  of  staying  where  Elsa  was.  He  was  no 
longer  an  outlaw;  he  could  go  and  come  as  he 
would.  But  there  was  that  misstep,  not  printed  in 
shifting  sand  but  upon  the  granite  of  recollection. 

275 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Single,  he  could  go  back  to  his  world  and  pick  up 
the  threads  again,  but  not  with  a  wife  at  his  side. 
Oh,  yes;  they  would  be  happy  at  first.  Then  Elsa 
would  begin  to  miss  the  things  she  had  so  gloriously 
thrown  away.  The  rift  in  the  lute;  the  canker  in 
the  rose.  They  were  equally  well-born,  well-bred; 
politeness  would  usurp  affection's  hold.  Could  he 
save  her  from  the  day  when  she  would  learn  Ro 
mance  had  come  from  within?  No.  All  he  could 
do  was  to  help  her  find  the  man. 

He  sent  five  cablegrams  to  Saigon,  to  the  con 
sulate,  to  the  principal  hotels :  the  most  difficult  com 
position  he  had  ever  attacked.  But  because  he  had 
forgotten  to  send  the  sixth  to  meet  the  packet-boat, 
against  the  possibility  of  Warrington  changing  his 
mind  and  not  landing,  his  labor  was  thrown  to  the 
winds. 

Meantime  Elsa  stopped  at  the  office-desk.  "  I  left 
a  note  for  Mr.  Warrington  who  has  gone  to  Saigon. 
I  see  it  in  his  key-box.  Will  you  please  return  it 
tome?" 

The  clerk  did  not  hesitate  an  instant.  He  gravely 
returned  the  note  to  her,  marveling  at  her  paleness. 
Elsa  crushed  the  note  in  her  hand  a;id  moved  to- 

276 


TWO  LETTERS 

ward  the  stairs,  wondering  if  she  could  reach  her 
room  before  she  broke  down  utterly.  He  had  gone. 
He  had  gone  without  knowing  that  all  he  wanted 
in  life  was  his  for  the  taking.  In  her  room  she 
opened  the  note  and  through  blurred  vision  read 
what  she  had  so  happily  inscribed  the  night  before. 
"  Paul  —  I  love  you.  Come  to  me.  Elsa."  She 
had  written  it,  unashamed. 

She  flung  herself  upon  the  bed,  and  there  Martha 
found  her. 

"  Elsa,  child,  what  is  it  ?  "  Martha  cried,  kneel 
ing  beside  the  bed.  "  Child,  what  has  happened  ?  " 

Elsa  sat  up,  seized  Martha  by  the  shoulders  and 
stared  into  the  faithful  eyes. 

"  Do  you  want  to  know  ?  " 

"Elsa!" 

"  Well,  I  love  this  man  Warrington  and  he  loves 
me.  But  he  has  gone.  Can't  you  see  ?  Don't  you 
understand  ?  Have  you  been  as  blind  as  I  ?  He  is 
Paul  Ellison,  Arthur's  brother,  his  twin  brother. 
And  they  obliterated  him.  It  is  Arthur  who  is  the 
ghost,  Martha,  the  phantom.  Ah,  I  have  caused 
you  a  good  deal  of  worry,  and  I  am  going  to  cause 
you  yet  more.  I  am  going  to  Saigon ;  up  and  down 

277 


PARROT  &  CO. 

the  world,  east  and  west,  until  I  find  him.  Shall  I 
go  alone,  or  will  you  go  with  me  ?  " 

Then  Martha  did  what  ever  after  endeared  her  to 
the  heart  of  the  stricken  girl:  she  mothered  her. 
"  Elsa,  my  baby !  Of  course  I  shall  go  with  you,  al 
ways.  For  you  could  not  love  any  man  if  he  was 
not  worthy." 

Then  followed  the  strangest  quest  doubtless  ever 
made  by  a  woman.  From  Singapore  to  Saigon,  up 
to  Bangkok,  down  to  Singapore  again;  to  Batavia, 
over  to  Hongkong,  Shanghai,  Pekin,  Manila,  Hong 
kong  again,  then  Yokohama.  Patient  and  hopeful, 
Elsa  followed  the  bewildering  trail.  She  left  be 
hind  her  many  puzzled  hotel  managers  and  booking 
agents:  for  it  was  not  usual  for  a  beautiful  young 
woman  to  go  about  the  world,  inquiring  for  a  blond 
man  with  a  parrot  Sometimes  she  was  only  a  day 
late.  Many  cablegrams  she  sent,  but  upon  her  ar 
rival  in  each  port  she  found  that  these  had  not  been 
called  for.  Over  these  heart-breaking  disappoint 
ments  she  uttered  no  complaint.  The  world  \\as 
big  and  wide ;  be  it  never  so  big  and  wide,  Elsa  knew 
that  some  day  she  would  find  him. 

In  the  daytime  there  was  the  quest;  but,  ah!  the 
278 


TWO  LETTERS 

nights,  the  interminable  hours  of  inaction,  the  spaces 
of  time  in  which  she  could  only  lie  back  and  think. 
Up  and  down  the  coasts,  across  islands,  over  seas, 
the  journey  took  her,  until  one  day  in  July  she  found 
herself  upon  the  pillared  veranda  of  the  house  in 
which  her  mother  had  been  born. 


XX 

THE  TWO   BROTHERS 

FROM  port  to  port,  sometimes  not  stepping  off 
the  boat  at  all,  moody,  restless  and  irritable, 
Warrington  wended  his  way  home.  There  was 
nothing  surprising  in  the  fact  that  he  never  inquired 
for  mail.  Who  was  there  to  write?  Besides,  he 
sought  only  the  obscure  hotels,  where  he  was  not 
likely  to  meet  any  of  his  erstwhile  fellow  passengers. 
The  mockery  and  uselessness  of  his  home-going  be 
came  more  and  more  apparent  as  the  days  slipped 
by.  Often  he  longed  to  fly  back  to  the  jungles,  to 
James,  and  leave  matters  as  they  were.  Here  and 
there,  along  the  way,  he  had  tried  a  bit  of  luxury; 
but  the  years  of  economy  and  frugality  had  robbed 
him  of  the  ability  to  enjoy  it.  He  was  going  home 
...  to  what?  Surely  there  would  be  no  welcome 
for  him  at  his  journey's  end.  He  would  return  after 
the  manner  of  prodigals  in  general,  not  scriptural,  to 

280 


THE  TWO  BROTHERS 

find  that  he  was  not  wanted.     Of  his  own  free  will 
he  had  gone  out  of  their  lives. 

He  fought  grimly  against  the  thought  of  Elsa;  but 
he  was  not  strong  enough  to  vanquish  the  longings 
from  his  heart  and  mind.  Always  when  alone  she 
was  in  fancy  with  him,  now  smiling  amusedly  into 
his  face,  now  peering  down  at  the  phosphorescence 
seething  alongside,  now  standing  with  her  chin  up 
lifted,  her  eyes  half  shut,  letting  the  strong  winds 
strike  full  in  her  face.  Many  a  "  good  night "  he 
sent  over  the  seas.  An  incident ;  that  would  be  all. 

His  first  day  in  New  York  left  him  with  nothing 
more  than  a  feeling  of  foreboding  and  oppression. 
The  expected  exhilaration  of  returning  to  the  city 
of  his  birth  did  not  materialize.  So  used  to  open 
spaces  was  he,  to  distances  and  the  circle  of  ho 
rizons,  that  he  knew  he  no  longer  belonged  to  the 
city  with  its  Himalayan  gorges  and  canons,  whose 
torrents  were  human  beings  and  whose  glaciers  were 
the  hearts  of  these.  A  great  loneliness  bore  down 
on  him.  For  months  he  had  been  drawing  fa 
miliar  pictures,  and  to  find  none  of  these  was  like 
coming  home  to  an  empty  house.  The  old  life  was 
indeed  gone;  there  were  no  threads  to  resume.  A 

281 


PARROT  &  CO. 

hotel  stood  where  his  club  had  been;  the  house  in 
which  he  had  spent  his  youth  was  no  more.  He 
wanted  to  leave  the  city;  and  the  desire  was  with 
difficulty  overcome. 

Early  the  second  morning  he  started  down-town 
to  the  offices  of  the  Andes  Construction  Company. 
He  was  extraordinarily  nervous.  Cold  sweat  con 
tinually  moistened  his  palms.  Change,  change, 
everywhere  change;  Trinity  was  like  an  old  friend. 
When  the  taxicab  driver  threw  off  the  power  and 
indicated  with  a  jerk  of  his  head  a  granite  shaft 
that  soared  up  into  the  blue,  Warrington  asked: 
"  What  place  is  this  ?  " 

"  The  Andes  Building,  sir.  The  construction 
company  occupies  the  top  floor." 

"Very  good,"  replied  Warrington,  paying  and 
discharging  the  man. 

From  a  reliquary  of  the  Dutch,  an  affair  of  red 
brick,  four  stories  high,  this  monolith  had  sprung. 
With  a  sigh  Warrington  entered  the  cavernous  door 
way  and  stepped  into  an  "  express-elevator."  When 
the  car  arrived  at  the  twenty-second  story,  Warring- 
ton  was  alone.  He  paused  before  the  door  of  the 
vice-president.  He  recalled  the  "  old  man,"  thin- 

282 


THE  TWO  BROTHERS 

lipped,  blue-eyed,  eruptive.  It  was  all  very  strange, 
this  request  to  make  the  restitution  in  person.  Well 
he  would  soon  learn  why. 

He  drew  the  certified  check  from  his  wallet  and 
scrutinized  it  carefully.  Twelve  thousand,  eight 
hundred  dollars.  He  replaced  it,  opened  the  door, 
and  walked  in.  A  boy  met  him  at  the  railing  and 
briskly  inquired  his  business. 

"  I  wish  to  see  Mr.  Elmore." 

"  Your  card." 

Card?  Warrington  had  not  possessed  such  a 
thing  in  years.  "  I  have  no  cards  with  me.  But  I 
have  an  appointment  with  Mr.  Elmore.  Tell  him 
that  Mr.  Ellison  is  here." 

The  boy  returned  promptly  and  signified  that  Mr. 
Elmore  was  at  liberty.  But  it  was  not  the  "  old 
man  "  who  looked  up  from  a  busy  man's  desk.  It 
was  the  son :  so  far,  the  one  familiar  face  Warring- 
ton  had  seen  since  his  arrival.  There  was  no  hand 
shaking;  there  was  nothing  in  evidence  on  either 
side  to  invite  it. 

"  Ah !  Sit  down,  Paul.  Let  no  one  disturb  me 
for  an  hour,"  the  young  vice-president  advised  the 
boy.  "  And  close  the  door  as  you  go  out." 

283 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Warrington  sat  down;  the  bridge-builder  whirled 
his  chair  around  and  stared  at  his  visitor,  not  inso 
lently,  but  with  kindly  curiosity. 

"  You've  filled  out,"  was  all  he  said.  After  fully 
satisfying  his  eyes,  he  added :  "  I  dare  say  you  ex 
pected  to  find  father.  He's  been  gone  six  years," 
indicating  one  of  the  two  portraits  over  his  desk. 

It  was  not  at  the  "  old  man  "  Warrington  looked 
longest.  "  Who  is  the  other  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  What  ?  You  worked  four  years  with  this  com 
pany  and  don't  recollect  that  portrait?  " 

"  Frankly,  I  never  noticed  it  before."  Warring- 
ton  placed  the  certified  check  on  the  desk.  "  With 
interest,"  he  said. 

The  vice-president  crackled  it,  ran  his  fingers  over 
his  smooth  chin,  folded  the  check  and  extended  it 
toward  the  astonished  wanderer. 

"We  don't  want  that,  Paul.  What  we  wanted 
was  to  get  you  back.  There  was  no  other  way 
Your  brother  made  up  the  loss  the  day  after  you 
.  .  .  went  away.  There  was  no  scandal.  Only  a 
few  of  us  in  the  office  knew.  Never  got  to  the 
newspapers." 

It  was  impossible  for  Warrington  to  digest  this 
284 


THE  TWO  BROTHERS 

astounding  information  at  once.  His  mind  could 
only  repeat  the  phrases:  no  scandal,  only  a  few  of 
us  in  the  office  knew,  never  got  to  the  newspapers. 
For  ten  years  he  had  hidden  himself  in  wildernesses, 
avoided  hotels,  read  no  American  newspapers,  never 
called  for  mail.  Oh,  monumental  fool! 

"  And  I  could  have  come  home  almost  at  once ! " 
he  said  aloud,  addressing  the  crumpled  check  in  his 
hand  rather  than  the  man  in  the  swivel-chair. 

"  Yes.  I  have  often  wondered  where  you  were, 
what  you  were  doing.  You  and  your  brother  were 
upper-classmen.  I  never  knew  Arthur  very  well; 
but  you  and  I  were  chummy,  after  a  fashion.  Ar 
thur  was  a  little  too  bookish  for  my  style.  Didn't 
we  use  to  call  you  Old  Galahad  ?  You  were  always 
walloping  the  bullies  and  taking  the  weaker  chaps 
under  your  wing.  To  me,  you  were  the  last  man 
in  the  world  for  this  business.  Moreover,  I  never 
could  understand,  nor  could  father,  how  you  got 
it,  for  you  were  not  an  office-man.  Women  and 
cards,  I  suppose.  Father  said  that  you  had  the  mak 
ing  of  a  great  engineer.  Fierce  place,  this  old 
town,"  waving  his  hand  toward  the  myriad  spark 
ling  roofs  and  towers  and  spires.  "  Have  to  be 

285 


PARROT  &  CO. 

strong  and  hard-headed  to  survive  it.     Built  any 
thing  since  you've  been  away  ?  " 

"  In  Cashmir."     To  have  thrown  away  a  decade ! 

"  Glad  you  kept  your  hand  in.  I  dare  say  you've 
seen  a  lot  of  life."  To  the  younger  man  it  was  an 
extremely  awkward  interview. 

"Yes;  I've  seen  life,"  dully. 

"  Orient,  mostly,  I  suppose.  Your  letter  about 
the  strike  in  oil  was  mighty  interesting.  Heap  of 
money  over  there,  if  they'd  only  let  us  smart  chaps 
in  to  dig  it  up.  Now,  old  man,  I  want  you  to  wipe 
the  slate  clear  of  these  ten  years.  We'll  call  it  a 
bad  dream.  What  are  your  plans  for  the  fu 
ture?" 

"  Plans  ?  "  Warrington  looked  up  blankly.  He 
realized  that  he  had  made  no  plans  for  the  future. 

"  Yes.  What  do  you  intend  to  do  ?  A  man  like 
you  wasn't  made  for  idleness.  Look  here,  Paul; 
I'm  not  going  to  beat  about  the  bush.  We've  got  a 
whopping  big  contract  from  the  Chinese  govern 
ment,  and  we  need  a  man  to  take  charge,  a  man  who 
knows  and  understands  something  of  the  yellow 
people.  How  about  a  salary  of  ten  thousand  a  year 
for  two  years,  to  begin  in  October  ?  " 

286 


THE  TWO  BROTHERS 

Warrington  twisted  the  check.  Work,  rehabili 
tation. 

"  Could  you  trust  me?  "  he  asked  quietly. 

"  With  anything  I  have  in  the  world.  Under 
stand,  Paul,  there's  no  philanthropic  string  to  this 
offer.  You've  pulled  through  a  devil  of  a  hole. 
You're  a  man.  I  should  not  be  holding  down  this 
chair  if  I  couldn't  tell  a  man  at  a  glance.  We  were 
together  two  months  in  Peru.  I'm  familiar  with 
your  work.  Do  you  want  to  know  whose  portrait 
that  is  up  there  ?  Well,  it's  General  Chetwood's,  the 
founder  of  this  concern,  the  silent  partner.  The 
man  who  knew  kings  and  potentates  and  told  'em 
that  they  needed  bridges  in  their  backyards.  This 
building  belongs  to  his  daughter.  She  converted 
her  stock  into  granite.  About  a  month  ago  I  re 
ceived  a  letter  from  her.  It  directly  concerned  you. 
It  seems  she  learned  through  the  consul-general  at 
Singapore  that  you  had  worked  with  us.  She's  like 
her  father,  a  mighty  keen  judge  of  human  nature. 
Frankly,  this  offer  comes  through  her  advices.  To 
satisfy  yourself,  you  can  give  us  a  surety-bond 
for  fifty  thousand.  It's  not  obligatory,  how 
ever." 

287 


PARROT  &  CO. 

Elsa  Chetwood.  She  had  her  father's  eyes,  and 
it  was  this  which  had  drawn  his  gaze  to  the  por 
trait.  Chetwood;  and  Arthur  had  not  known  any 
more  than  he  had.  What  irony!  Ten  years 
wasted  .  .  .  for  nothing!  Warrington  laughed 
aloud.  A  weakness  seized  him,  like  that  of  a  man 
long  gone  hungry. 

"  Buck  up,  Paul,"  warned  the  good  Samaritan. 
"  All  this  kind  of  knocks  the  wind  out  of  you.  I 
know.  But  what  I've  offered  you  is  in  good  faith. 
Will  you  take  it?" 

"Yes,"  simply. 

"  That's  the  way  to  talk.  Supposing  you  go  out 
to  lunch  with  me  ?  We'll  talk  it  over  like  old  times." 

"No.     I  haven't  seen  .  .  ." 

"To  be  sure!  I  forgot.  Do  you  know  where 
they  live,  your  mother  and  brother  ?  " 

"  No.     I  expected  to  ask  you." 

The  vice-president  scribbled  down  the  address. 
"  I  believe  you'll  find  them  both  there,  though  Ar 
thur,  I  understand,  is  almost  as  great  a  traveler  as 
you  are.  Of  course  you  want  to  see  them,  you  poor 
beggar!  The  Southwestern  will  pull  you  almost 
up  to  the  door.  After  the  reunion,  you  hike  back 

288 


THE  TWO  BROTHERS 

here,  and  we'll  get  down  to  the  meat  of  the  busi 
ness." 

"  John,"  said  Warrington,  huskily,  "  you're  a 
man." 

"  Oh,  piffle !  It's  not  all  John.  The  old  man  left 
word  that  if  you  ever  turned  up  again  to  hang  on  to 
you.  You  were  valuable.  And  there's  Miss  Chet- 
wood.  If  you  want  to  thank  anybody,  thank  her." 
Warrington  missed  the  searching  glance,  which  was 
not  without  its  touch  of  envy.  "  You'd  better  be 
off.  Hustle  back  as  soon  as  you  can."  Elmore  of 
fered  his  hand  now.  "  Gad !  but  you  haven't  lost 
any  of  your  old  grip." 

"  I'm  a  bit  dazed.  The  last  six  months  have 
loosened  up  my  nerves." 

"  Nobody's  made  of  iron." 

"  I'd  sound  hollow  if  I  tried  to  say  what  I  feel. 
I'll  be  back  a  week  from  to-day." 

"  I'll  look  for  you." 

As  the  door  closed  behind  Warrington,  the  young 
millionaire  sat  down,  scowling  at  a  cubby-hole  in  his 
desk.  He  presently  took  out  a  letter  postmarked 
Yokohama.  He  turned  it  about  in  his  hands,  mus 
ingly.  Without  reading  it  (  for  he  knew  its  contents 

289 


PARROT  &  CO. 

well!)  he  thrust  it  back  into  the  cubby-hole. 
Women  were  out  of  his  sphere.  He  could  build  a 
bridge  within  a  dollar  of  the  bid ;  but  he  knew  noth 
ing  about  women  beyond  the  fact  that  they  were  al 
ways  desirable. 

A  few  monosyllables,  a  sentence  or  two,  and  then, 
good  day.  The  average  man  would  have  recounted 
every  incident  of  note  during  those  ten  years.  He 
did  not  admire  Warrington  any  the  less  for  his  ret 
icence.  It  took  a  strong  man  to  hold  himself  to 
gether  under  all  these  blows  from  the  big  end  of 
fortune's  horn. 

He  had  known  the  two  brothers  at  college,  and 
to  Paul  he  had  given  a  freshman's  worship.  In  the 
field  Paul  had  been  the  idol,  and  popular  not  only 
for  his  feats  of  strength  but  for  his  lovableness. 
He  recalled  the  affection  between  the  two  boys. 
Arthur  admired  Paul  for  his  strength,  Paul  admired 
and  gloried  in  his  brother's  learning.  Never  would 
he  forget  that  commencement-day,  when  the  two 
boys  in  their  mortar-boards,  their  beautiful  mother 
between  them,  arm  in  arm,  walked  across  the  green 
of  the  campus.  It  was  an  unforgettable  picture. 

Paul  was  a  born-engineer ;  Arthur  had  entered  the 
290 


THE  TWO  BROTHERS 

office  as  a  make-shift.  Paul  had  taken  eight-thou 
sand  one  day,  and  decamped.  Arthur  had  refunded 
the  sum,  and  disappeared.  Elmore  could  not  un 
derstand,  nor  could  his  father.  Perhaps  some  of 
the  truth  would  now  come  to  light.  Somehow, 
Paul,  with  his  blond  beard  and  blonder  head,  his 
bright  eyes,  his  tan,  his  big  shoulders,  somehow  Paul 
was  out  of  date.  He  did  not  belong  to  the  times. 

And  Elsa  had  met  him  over  there ;  practically  or 
dered  (though  she  had  no  authority)  that  he  should 
be  given  a  start  anew ;  that,  moreover,  she  would  go 
his  bond  to  any  amount.  Funny  old  world !  Well, 
he  was  glad.  Paul  was  a  man,  a  big  man,  and  that 
was  the  sort  needed  in  the  foreign  bridge-building. 
He  rolled  down  the  top  of  his  desk  and  left  the 
building.  He  was  in  no  mood  for  work. 

The  evening  of  the  third  day  found  Warrington 
in  the  baggage-car,  feeding  a  dilapidated  feather- 
molting  bird,  who  was  in  a  most  scandalous  tem 
per.  Rajah  scattered  the  seeds  about,  spurned  the 
banana-tip,  tilted  the  water-cup  and  swashbuckled 
generally.  By  and  by,  above  the  clack-clack  of 
wheels  and  rails,  came  a  crooning  song.  The  bag 
gage-man  looked  up  from  his  way-book  and  lowered 

291 


.    PARROT  &  CO. 

his  pipe.  He  saw  the  little  green  bird  pause  and 
begin  to  keep  time  with  its  head.  It  was  the  Urdu 
lullaby  James  used  to  sing.  It  never  failed  to  quiet 
the  little  parrot.  Warrington  went  back  to  his  Pull 
man,  where  the  porter  greeted  him  with  the  infor 
mation  that  the  next  stop  would  be  his.  Ten  min 
utes  later  he  stepped  from  the  train,  a  small  kit- 
bag  in  one  hand  and  the  parrot-cage  in  the  other. 

He  had  come  prepared  for  mistake  on  the  part 
of  the  natives.  The  single  smart  cabman  lifted  his 
hat,  jumped  down  from  the  box,  and  opened  the 
door.  Warrington  entered  without  speaking.  The 
door  closed,  and  the  coupe  rolled  away  briskly.  He 
was  perfectly  sure  of  his  destination.  The  cabman 
had  mistaken  him  for  Arthur.  It  would  be  better 
so.  There  would  be  no  after  complications  when  he 
departed  on  the  morrow.  As  the  coupe  took  a  turn, 
he  looked  out  of  the  window.  They  were  entering 
a  driveway,  lined  on  each  side  of  which  were  chest 
nuts.  Indeed,  the  house  was  set  in  the  center  of  a 
grove  of  these  splendid  trees.  The  coupe  stopped. 

"  Wait,"  said  Warrington,  alighting. 

"Yes,  sir." 

Warrington  went  up  the  broad  veranda  steps  and 
292 


THE  TWO  BROTHERS 

pulled  the  old-fashioned  bell-cord.  He  was  rather 
amazed  at  his  utter  lack  of  agitation.  He  was  as 
calm  as  if  he  were  making  a  call  upon  a  casual  ac 
quaintance.  His  mother  and  brother,  whom  he  had 
not  seen  in  ten  years !  The  great  oak-door  drew  in, 
and  he  entered  unceremoniously. 

"  Why,  Marse  A'thuh,  I  di'n't  see  yo'  go  out! " 
exclaimed  the  old  negro  servant. 

"  I  am  not  Arthur ;  I  am  his  brother  Paul.  Which 
door?" 

Pop-eyed,  the  old  negro  pointed  to  a  door  down 
the  hall.  Then  he  leaned  against  the  banister  and 
caught  desperately  at  the  spindles.  For  the  voice 
was  not  Arthur's. 

Warrington  opened  tHe  door,  closed  it  gently  and 
stood  with  his  back  to  it.  At  a  desk  in  the  middle 
of  the  room  sat  a  man,  busy  with  books.  He  raised 
his  head. 

"  Arthur,  don't  you  know  me?  " 

"Paul?" 

The  chair  overturned ;  some  books  thudded  dully 
upon  the  rug.  Arthur  leaned  with  his  hands  tense 
upon  the  desk.  Paul  sustained  the  look,  his  eyes 
sad  and  his  face  pale  and  grave. 


'VT'ES,  it  is  I,  the  unlucky  penny;  Old  Gala- 
JL  had,  in  flesh  and  blood  and  bone.  I 
shouldn't  get  white  over  it,  Arthur.  It  isn't  worth 
while.  I  can  see  that  you  haven't  changed  much, 
unless  it  is  that  your  hair  is  a  little  paler  at  the  tem 
ples.  Gray?  I'll  wager  I've  a  few  myself."  There 
was  a  flippancy  in  his  tone  that  astonished  War- 
rington's  own  ears,  for  certainly  this  light  mockery 
did  not  come  from  within.  At  heart  he  was  sober 
enough. 

To  steady  the  thundering  beat  of  his  pulse  he 
crossed  the  room,  righted  the  chair,  stacked  the 
books  and  laid  them  on  the  desk.  Arthur  did  not 
move  save  to  turn  his  head  and  to  follow  with  fas 
cinated  gaze  his  brother's  movements. 

"  Now,  Arthur,  I've  only  a  little  while.  I  can 
see  by  your  eyes  that  you  are  conjuring  up  all  sorts 
of  terrible  things.  But  nothing  is  going  to  happen. 

294 


lws 


"Arthur,  don't  you  know  me?" 


HE  THAT  WAS  DEAD 

I  am  going  to  talk  to  you ;  then  I'm  going  away ;  and 
to-morrow  it  will  be  easy  to  convince  yourself  that 
you  have  seen  only  a  ghost.  Sit  down.  I'll  take 
this  chair  at  the  left." 

Arthur's  hands  slid  from  the  desk;  in  a  kind  of 
collapse  he  sat  down.  Suddenly  he  laid  his  head 
upon  his  arms,  and  a  great  sigh  sent  its  tremor  across 
his  shoulders.  Warrington  felt  his  heart  swell. 
The  past  faded  away;  his  wrongs  became  vapors. 
He  saw  only  his  brother,  the  boy  he  had  loved  so 
devotedly,  Arty,  his  other  self,  his  scholarly  other 
self.  Why  blame  Arthur?  He,  Paul,  was  the 
fool. 

"  Don't  take  it  like  that,  Arty,"  he  said. 

The  other's  hand  stretched  out  blindly  toward  the 
voice.  "  Ah,  great  God,  Paul ! " 

"  I  know !  Perhaps  I've  brooded  too  much." 
Warrington  crushed  the  hand  in  his  two  strong  ones. 
"  The  main  fault  was  mine.  I  couldn't  see  the 
length  of  my  nose.  I  threw  a  temptation  in  your 
way  which  none  but  a  demi-god  could  have  re 
sisted.  That  night,  when  I  got  your  note  telling  me 
what  you  had  done,  I  did  a  damnably  foolish  thing. 
I  went  to  the  club-bar  and  drank  heavily.  I  was 

295 


PARROT  &  CO. 

wild  to  help  you,  but  I  couldn't  see  how.  At  two  in 
the  morning  I  thought  I  saw  the  way.  Drunken 
men  get  strange  ideas  into  their  heads.  You  were 
the  apple  of  the  mother's  eyes;  I  was  only  her  son. 
No  use  denying  it.  She  worshiped  you;  tolerated 
me.  I  came  back  to  the  house,  packed  up  what  I 
absolutely  needed,  and  took  the  first  train  west.  It 
all  depended  upon  what  you'd  do.  You  let  me  go, 
Arty,  old  boy.  I  suppose  you  were  pretty  well 
knocked  up,  when  you  learned  what  I  had  done. 
And  then  you  let  things  drift.  It  was  only  natural. 
I  had  opened  the  way  for  you.  Mother,  learning 
that  I  was  a  thie,f,  restored  the  defalcation  to  save 
the  family  honor,  which  was  your  future.  We  were 
always  more  or  less  hard-pressed  for  funds.  I  did 
not  gamble,  but  I  wasted  a  lot.  The  mother  gave 
us  an  allowance  of  five  thousand  each.  To  this  I 
managed  to  add  another  five  and  you  another  four. 
You  were  always  borrowing  from  me.  I  never 
questioned  what  you  did  with  it.  I  would  to  God 
I  had !  It  would  have  saved  us  a  lot  of  trouble." 

The  hand  in  his  relaxed  and  slipped  from  the 
clasp. 

"  Some  of  these  things  will  sound  bitter,  but  the 


HE  THAT  WAS  DEAD 

heart  behind  them  isn't.  So  I  did  what  I  thought 
to  be  a  great  and  glorious  thing.  I  was  sober  when 
I  reached  Chicago.  I  saw  my  deed  from  another 
angle.  Think  of  it;  we  could  have  given  our  joint 
note  to  mother's  bank  for  the  amount.  Old  Hen 
derson  would  have  discounted  it  in  a  second.  It  was 
too  late.  I  went  on.  The  few  hundreds  I  had  gave 
out.  I've  been  up  against  it  pretty  hard.  There 
were  times  when  I  envied  the  pariah-dog.  But  for 
tune  came  around  one  day,  knocked,  and  I  let  her 
in.  I  returned  to  make  a  restitution,  only  to  learn 
that  it  had  been  made  by  you,  long  ago.  A  trick 
of  young  Elmore's.  I  shouldn't  have  come  back  if 
I  could  have  sent  the  money." 

Arthur  raised  his  head  and  sat  up.  "  Ah,  why 
did  you  not  write?  Why  did  you  not  let  me  know 
where  you  were?  God  is  my  witness,  if  there  is  a 
corner  of  this  world  unsearched  for  you.  For  two 
years  I  had  a  man  hunting.  He  gave  up.  I  be 
lieved  you  dead." 

"  Dead  ?     Well,  I  was  in  a  sense." 

"  You  have  suffered,  but  not  as  I  have.  Always 
you  had  before  you  your  great,  splendid,  foolish 
sacrifice.  I  had  nothing  to  buoy  me  up ;  there  was 

297 


PARROT  &  CO. 

\ 

only  the  drag  of  the  recollection  of  an  evil  deed, 
and  a  moment  of  pitiful  weakness.  The  temptation 
was  too  great,  Paul." 

"How  did  it  happen?" 

"  How  does  anything  like  that  happen  ?  Curi 
osity  drew  me  first,  for  at  college  I  never  played  but 
a  few  games  of  bridge.  Curiosity,  desire,  then  the 
full  blaze  of  the  passion.  You  will  never  know  what 
that  is,  Paul.  It  is  stronger  than  love,  or  faith,  or 
honor.  God  knows  I  never  thought  myself  weak; 
at  school  I  was  the  least  impetuous  of  the  two. 
Everything  went,  and  they  cheated  me  from  the 
start.  Roulette  and  faro.  Then  I  put  my  hand  in 
the  safe.  To  this  day  I  can  not  tell  why.  I  owed 
nothing  to  those  despicable  thieves,  Craig  least  of 
all." 

"  Craig.  I  met  him  over  there.  Pummeled 
him." 

"  I  didn't  act  like  a  man.  Some  day  a  comfor 
table  fortune  would  fall  to  the  lot  of  each  of  us. 
But  I  took  eight  thousand,  lost  it,  and  came  whin 
ing  to  you.  You  don't  belong  to  this  petty  age, 
Paul.  You  ought  to  have  been  a  fellow  of  the 
Round  Table."  Arthur  smiled  wanly.  "  To  throw 

298 


HE  THAT  WAS  DEAD 

your  life  away  like  that,  for  a  brother  who  wasn't 
fit  to  lace  your  shoes!  If  you  had  written  you 
would  have  learned  that  everything  was  smoothed 
over.  The  Andes  people  dropped  the  matter  en 
tirely.  You  loved  the  mother  far  better  than  I." 

"  And  she  must  never  know,"  quietly. 

"  Do  you  mean  that  ?  " 

"  I  always  mean  everything  I  say,  Arty.  Can't 
you  see  the  uselessness  of  telling  her  now?  She 
has  gone  all  these  years  with  the  belief  that  I  am 
a  thief.  A  thief,  Arty,  I,  who  never  stole  anything 
save  a  farmer's  apples.  They  would  have  called 
you  a  defaulter ;  that's  because  you  had  access  to  the 
safe,  whereas  I  had  none."  Arthur  winced.  "  I 
don't  propose  to  disillusion  the  mother.  I  am  strong 
enough  to  go  away  without  seeing  her;  and  God 
knows  how  my  heart  yearns,  and  my  ears  and  eyes 
and  arms." 

Warrington  reached  mechanically  for  the  por 
trait  in  the  silver  frame,  but  Arthur  stayed  his 
hand. 

"  No,  Paul ;  that  is  mine." 

Warrington  dropped  his  hand,  puzzled.  "  I  was 
not  going  to  destroy  it,"  ironically. 

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PARROT  &  CO. 

"  No ;  but  in  a  sense  you  have  destroyed  me. 
Compensation.  What  trifling  thought  most  of  us 
give  that  word!  The  law  of  compensation.  For 
ten  years  Elsa  has  been  the  flower  o'  the  corn  for 
me.  She  almost  loved  me.  And  one  day  she  sees 
you;  and  in  that  one  day  all  that  I  had  gained  was 
lost,  and  all  that  you  had  lost  was  gained.  The  law 
of  compensation.  Sometimes  we  escape  retribution, 
but  never  the  law  of  compensation.  Some  months 
ago  she  wrote  me  a  letter.  She  was  always  direct. 
It  was  a  just  letter." 

A  pause.  Arthur  gazed  steadily  at  the  portrait, 
while  Warrington  twisted  his  yellow  beard. 

"  The  ways  of  mothers  are  mysterious,"  said  the 
latter,  finally.  He  wondered  if  Arthur  would  con 
fess  to  the  blacker  deed,  or  have  it  forced  from  him. 
He  would  wait  and  see.  "  The  father  and  the 
mother  weren't  happy.  Money.  There's  the 
wedge.  It's  in  every  life  somewhere.  A  marriage 
of  convenience  is  an  unwise  thing.  When  we  were 
born  the  mother  turned  to  us.  Up  to  the  time  we 
were  six  or  seven  there  was  no  distinction  in  her 
love  for  us.  But  on  the  day  the  father  set  his  choice 
upon  me,  she  set  hers  upon  you.  You'll  never  know 

300 


HE  THAT  WAS  DEAD 

how  I  suffered  as  a  boy,  when  I  saw  the  distance 
growing  wider  and  wider  with  the  years.  Perhaps 
the  father  understood,  for  he  was  always  kind  and 
gentle  to  me.  I  expect  to  return  to  China  shortly. 
The  Andes  has  taken  me  back.  Sounds  like  a  fairy 
tale;  eh?  I  shall  never  return  here.  But  did  you 
know  who  Elsa  Chetwood  was  ?  " 

"  Not  until  that  letter  came." 

Neither  of  them  heard  the  faint  gasp  which  came 
from  behind  the  portieres  dividing  the  study  and  the 
living-room.  The  gasp  had  followed  the  invisible 
knife-thrusts  of  these  confidences.  The  woman  be 
hind  those  portieres  swayed  and  caught  blindly  at 
the  jamb.  With  cruel  vividness  she  saw  in  this  ter 
rible  moment  all  that  to  which  she  had  never  given 
more  than  a  passing  thought.  No  reproaches ;  only 
a  simple  declaration  of  what  had  burned  in  this  boy's 
heart.  And  she  had  almost  forgotten  this  son.  A 
species  of  paralysis  laid  hold  of  her,  leaving  her  for 
the  time  incapable  of  movement. 

She  heard  the  deep  voice  of  this  other  son  say: 
"  Lots  of  kinks  in  life.  There  is  only  one  law  that 
I  shall  lay  down  for  you,  Arty.  You  must  give 
up  all  idea  of  marrying  Elsa  Chetwood." 

301 


PARROT  &  CO. 

"  It  will  be  easy  to  obey  that.  Are  you  playing 
with  me,  Paul?" 

"  Playing?  "  echoed  Warrington. 

"  Yes.  Do  you  mean  to  sit  there  and  tell  me  that 
you  don't  know  why  I  shall  never  marry  her?  " 

"Arty,  I  don't  understand  what  you're  talking 
about." 

Arthur  read  the  truth  in  his  brother's  eyes.  He 
smiled  weakly,  the  anger  gone.  "  Same  old  blind 
duffer  you  always  were.  I  wrote  an  answer  to 
her  letter.  In  that  letter  I  told  her  ...  the 
truth." 

"You  did  that?" 

"  I  am  your  brother,  Paul.  I  couldn't  be  a  cad  as 
well  as  a  thief.  Yes,  I  told  her.  I  told  her  more, 
what  you  never  knew.  I  let  Craig  believe  that  I 
was  you,  Paul.  I  wore  your  clothes,  your  scarf- 
pins,  your  hats.  In  that  I  was  a  black  villain.  God ! 
What  a  hell  I  lived  in.  ...  Ah,  mother !  "  Arthur 
dropped  his  head  upon  his  arms  again. 

"Paul,  my  son!" 

It  was  Warrington's  chair  that  toppled  over. 
Framed  in  the  portieres  stood  his  mother,  white- 
haired,  pale  but  as  beautiful  as  of  old. 

302 


HE  THAT  WAS  DEAD 

"  I  am  sorry.  I  had  hoped  to  get  away  without 
your  knowing." 

"Why?" 

"  Oh,  because  there  wasn't  any  use  of  my  coming 
at  all.  I'd  passed  out  of  your  life,  and  I  should 
have  stayed  out.  Don't  worry.  I've  got  every 
thing  mapped  out.  There's  a  train  at  midnight." 

Arthur  stood  up.  "  Mother,  I  am  the  guilty  man. 
I  was  the  thief.  All  these  years  I've  let  you  believe 
that  Paul  had  taken  the  money.  .  .  ." 

"  Yes,  yes ! "  she  interrupted,  never  taking  her 
eyes  off  this  other  son.  "  I  heard  everything  be 
hind  these  curtains.  You  were  going  away,  Paul, 
without  seeing  me?" 

"  What  was  the  use  of  stirring  up  old  matters  ? 
Of  bringing  confusion  into  this  house?"  He  did 
not  look  at  her.  He  could  not  tell  her  that  he  now 
knew  what  had  drawn  him  hither,  that  all  along  he 
had  deceived  himself. 

"  Paul,  my  son,  I  have  been  a  wicked  woman." 

"  Why,  mother,  you  mustn't  talk  like  that !  " 

"Wicked!  My  son,  my  silent,  kindly,  chivalric 
boy,  will  you  forgive  your  mother  ?  Your  unnatural 
mother?" 

303 


PARROT  &  CO. 

He  caught  her  before  her  knees  touched  the  floor; 
and,  ah!  how  hungrily  her  arms  wound  about 
him. 

"What's  the  use  of  lying?"  he  cried  brokenly. 
"  My  mother !  I  wanted  to  hear  your  voice  and  feel 
your  arms.  You  don't  know  how  I  have  always 
loved  you.  It  was  a  long  time,  a  very  long  time. 
Perhaps  I  was  to  be  blamed.  I  was  proud,  and  kept 
away  from  you.  Don't  cry.  There,  there !  I  can 
go  away  now,  happy."  Over  his  mother's  shoulders, 
now  moving  with  silent  stabbing  sobs,  he  held  out 
his  hand  to  his  brother.  Presently,  above  the  two 
bowed  heads,  Warrington's  own  rose,  transfigured 
with  happiness. 

The  hall-door  opened  and  closed,  but  none  of  them 
regarded  it. 

By  and  by  the  mother  stood  away,  but  within 
arm's  length.  "  How  big  and  strong  you  have 
grown,  Paul." 

"In  heart,  too,  mother,"  added  Arthur.  "Old 
Galahad!" 

"  You  must  never  leave  us  again,  Paul.  Prom 
ise." 

"  May  I  always  come  back  ?  " 

304 


HE  THAT  WAS  DEAD 

"  Always !  "  And  she  took  his  hand  and  pressed 
it  tightly  against  her  cheek.  "  Always !  Ah,  your 
poor  blind  mother !  " 

"  Always  to  come  back !  .  .  .  I  am  going  to 
China  in  a  little  while,  to  take  up  the  work1 1  have 
always  loved,  the  building  of  bridges." 

"  And  I  am  going,  too ! "  It  was  Elsa,  at  her 
journey's  end. 

Jealous  love  is  keen  of  eye.  There  was  death  in 
Arthur's  heart,  but  he  smiled  at  her.  After  all, 
what  was  more  logical  than  that  she  should  appear 
at  this  moment?  Why  sip  the  cup  when  it  might 
be  drained  at  once,  over  with  and  done  with? 

"  Elsa !  "  said  the  mother,  holding  Warrington's 
hand  in  closer  grasp. 

"  Yes,  mother.     Ah,  why  did  you  not  tell  me  all  ?  " 

Arthur  walked  to  the  long  window  that  opened 
out  upon  the  garden.  There,  for  a  moment,  he 
paused,  then  passed  from  the  room. 

"  Go  to  him,  mother,"  said  Elsa,  wisely  and  with 
pity. 

The  mother  hesitated,  pulled  by  the  old  and  the 
new  love,  by  the  fear  that  the  new-found  could  be 
hers  but  a  little  while.  Slowly  she  let  Paul's  hand 

3°5 


PARROT  &  CO. 

fall,  and  slower  still  she  followed  Arthur's  foot 
steps. 

"  I  wasn't  quite  brave  enough/'  he  said,  when  she 
found  him.  "They  love.  And  love  me  well, 
mother,  for  I  am  the  broken  man." 

She  pressed  his  head  against  her  heart.  "  My 
boy ! "  But  her  glance  was  leveled  at  the  amber- 
tinted  window  through  which  she  had  come. 

To  Warrington,  Elsa  was  a  little  thinner,  and  of 
color  there  was  none;  but  her  eyes  shone  with  all 
the  splendor  of  the  Oriental  stars  at  which  he  had 
so  often  gazed  with  mute  inquiry. 

"  Galahad !  "  she  said,  and  smiled.  "  Well,  what 
have  you  to  say?  " 

"  I  ?  In  God's  name,  what  can  I  say  but  that  I 
love  you?" 

"Well,  say  it,  and  stop  the  ache  in  my  heart! 
Say  it,  and  make  me  forget  the  weary  eighteen 
thousand  miles  I  have  journeyed  to  find  you !  Say 
it,  and  hold  me  close  for  I  am  tired !  .  .  .  Listen !  " 
she  whispered,  lifting  her  head  from  his  shoulder. 

From  out  the  stillness  of  the  summer  night  came 
a  jarring  note,  the  eternal  protest  of  Rajah. 

THE  END 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


1  "2  1/968 


Form  L9-Series  444 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

A  A      000024774    2 


PS 

2359 

M17p 


